electorate in 2008 all the way up to 70% this time around. that is a huge increase. these things normally creep up in incremental points or t the the oprah this one went up 3, or when that exit polls are finally finished, it might even be up four. in addition to the size of that increase hamas obama got an even bigger vote among host: if you want to join in on this segment, we are talking with the los angeles washington bureau chief about polling numbers that make up of the electorate that came out on tuesday. >> mr. louder will answer all your questions about the make

up of the electorate. i want to focus on party identification. the electorate was 38% democrats, republican 32% and independent or something else about 29%. is this now a democrats controlling -- being the majority of folks who come out? guest: yes and no. it's really important to make a distinction between party i.d. how people identify themselves when you ask which party do you belong to and vote behave yor. they're related things but they're different things. and there was a lot of confusion about that during the course of the campaign and a lot of arguments about polls because people were mixing up those two things. you've got a country that is very closely divided between democratic voters and republican voters. so a lot of republicans

including a lot of republican pollsters thought that meant that the party i.d. should be pretty much equally divided. so when the polls kept coming out showing more democrats than republicans, you had this constant comminet that the polls were scude. that wasn't true as the exit polls shofmente the polls were accurately reflecting the electorate. the reason is there are not so many more democratic voters than republican voters because as we can see from the results, it's pretty close. the reason is a lot of people who vote republican no longer identify themselves as republicans. they identify themselves as independents. so that group is more republican than it used to be. that's why before the election republicans were saying mitt romney was winning the independents he's going to win,

that wasn't the case because the independents are already a republican group. host: from the 2008 elections when obama won 52% to john mcwane's 44% of those who identified themselves as independents. these candidates were trying to reach those independents out there but you're saying not all the independents are truly independents? guest: when people identify as independent they mean a lot of different things. some people mean i go back and forth, that's one group. other people mean i kstly vote for one party or the other but i don't think of myself as a member of that party. and so you really have to

distinguish between how people identify themselves which is one thing and how people vote which is not necessarily the same thing. host: a couple of calls for you on the democratic line. caller: good morning. i just want to comment on the latino vote. i know you had a guest before and we could relate on. this a couple of points basically. how latinos perceive romney as being an interventionist candidate and we have a bad history with intervention and the u.s. intervening in affairs and sometimes invading some countries like panama and the dominican republic a couple of times. and the fact that latinos don't consider socialism as evil. and in america if you hear comments from right wing radio

host and news socialism is considered evil which and in latin america cast ro is very popular. >> host: were you surprised the latino vote hit the highest level in this election? caller: i was expected that. i was motivated to vote even though i'm in a democratic state, i knew obama was going to win here but i was motivated to vote because the way obama was non-niesed with -- from the press, the right wing and calling him names, calling him a socialist and i was very motivated to vote. host: what do the exit polls show motivated latino voters this cycle?

guest: it's hard to get to motivation because they don't ask those questions but there are some things clear from the exit polls and reelection polls. one of them which is caller touched on is that for a lot of immigrants in particular, the latino immigrants, some of the rhetoric that republicans use about free markets and individualism doesn't ring right. they have a different cultural tradition. port reek can voters obama healthcare plan was popular in part because there they have a government sponsored health plan and it works well and people are used to it. and the other thing i think was a big factor and is exit polls do suggest this as well and that's the republican position on immigration which alienated

a large number of latino voters. host: a question on twitter -- guest: that may well be the case. it's hard to prove because you can't run the election a second time and see whether the turnout would have been different. but democrats effectively used republican efforts to restrict voter i.d. and they used that as rallying tools and saying to their voters the republicans are trying to keep you from voting so prove them wrong by showing up to vote. and that may have motivated a lot of voters. host: good morning to the republican line. caller: i'm really questioning why we even have a republican party anymore.

we couldn't get the votes from hispanics, the hispanics don't like us, white women don't like us, blacks don't like us. the jewish vote doesn't like us. so my question is if we just had a totally democratic party, total and not have a republican party, what would really happen? the democrats would then decide who gets what, who does what, who pays what? i'm just finding the republican party is just -- i just don't want to work anymore. i've just lost heart because i don't see any point. guest: american politics seems to be cyclical. parties have a bigotry ump and

a couple of years later the tables turn. democrats thought it was smooth sail after 2008. 2010 they lost big. so it's premature to write the epitaph for the republican party. the wheel will turn again. that being said t republicans have some challenges ahead they have to figure out a way to deal with. host: the caller brings up the female vote in this election, obama winning the female vote 55% to mitt romney's 55%. that was down from 2008 when obama won 56% to 43%. guest: if you got a little deeper into the numbers it's not so much there is a gender gap. what there really is a marriage gap. obama won better than two to

one among unmarried men. he also won among unmarried men by a smaller margin. he lost among married women. unmarried women who make up 20% of the electorate, close to a quarter of the electorate are increasingly a building block of the democratic coalition and that's what is driving that gender gap that people talk about. host: let's go to new york on the independent line. caller: good morning. as a registered independent voter i find it disheartening there was no candidate on the ballot this year for independent party. and my question is in the past independent party has been able to at least keep both parties aware that there is a few percentage points out there they just don't have until election day. keeps them on their toes.

this year that wasn't the case. they pretty much knew where everybody was going with the vote. so does this significance any fi the end of the ind pent party being a player in what we're going to do in the future as far as political elections? guest: in general, third party candidates or smaller party candidates for president as opposed to a statewide office in some states, but for president they've tended to be people like ralph nater who made his name outside of politics and then used his note ritety to fuel a president campaign that took a few percentage points of the vote or someone like ross me row in the elections who was independently wealthy and campaigned his own campaign and attracted some of the vote.

those seem to be single person candidacies rather than continued political movement. and this year there wasn't anyone that fit into that and that's because both parties have expanded their grasp on the electorate. host: did gary johnson take more votes from republicans or democrats and what are the dem graphs of third party voters? guest: the second part of that question is hard to answer because exit polls, like any poll, have a margin of error. so when you get down to one, two, three% of a vote trying to parcel out the demographics of their support is really tough because the margin of error overwhelms everything else you have. gary johnson probably took more votes away from the republicans

than he did from obama but given the size of president obama's margins in the various states, there is no state currently in which johnson's margin -- which swron son's vote was enough to have made a difference. for a while it looked like that may have been the case in florida, but at this point, it's not. host: for those who don't know give us a sense of how these exit polls are put together. is there one firm that does all these polls or many? >> guest: there is one firm that does it for the networks and associated press and other people by the exit poll. but they put the exit poll together. they send people out to thousands of polling places around the country to sample voters as they come out of the polling places, they give them sample ballots and ask them to fill out showing who they voted for and a few basic demographic

factors and a couple of other questions. they supplement that with a telephone survey to capture people who voted early. they put those two things together and then very importantly, they match the turnout that the exit poll predicted in a particular prinks with the actual turnout in that prep sinket so you have to wait the results so you make sure your poll is reflecting the turnout in the places you sampled. so the numbers toned shift over the first 24 hours or so after all the votes come in and all that waiting is done. that's why those first wave of exit polls that get leaked out are wildly inaccurate. but once they're all done it's a wonderful tool for

understanding the electorate. host: let's go to jim. caller: i think there is a demographic and i represent it that i don't think the republicans even thought about or if they did, they just misjudged. >> see the rest of this segment at cspan.org. >> good afternoon. ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the white house briefing room. it's a pleasure to be back. we haven't done this too often of late since we've all been traveling. i want to thank all of you who traveled with us over the past weeks and months. i know it was sometimes grueling. i'm sure fascinating and certainly part of what is a remarkable process. it's just a reminder of the greatness of the country in which we live. before i take your questions, let me give you this announcement.

next thursday the president will travel to new york to view recovery efforts and meet with families and officials and thank first responders who have worked tire leslie following hurricane sandy. more details about the trip will be announced when they are available. >> new york city or new york area? >> new york area. >> earlier today the president queened a call with homeland security, fema chief of staff and other senior members of his team. on the call the president received an update on the latest response and recovery efforts in the affected area. he also heard from fema administrator on the latest efforts to meet the continuing power and fuel challenges facing affected communities as well as ongoing work of the

governors and their teams for housing solutions for the families. administrator is in new york survey i have aing damage and ongoing response recovery efforts t. president directed his team to bring all available resources to bear to support our state and local partners and not allow red tape to stand in the way of federal support that can be provided t. president will continue to receive updates on the response and recovery efforts from his team. and with that i'll take your questions. >> thanks and welcome to the lame duck session. we just heard the president say two things, one is that he's not [inaudible] he also insist on raising taxes on the threshold of 250,000 of above. he ran on about increase taxes

on the wealthiest to bill clinton era tax rates, that means 35% to 39% at the top rate. is that the president's now and would he veto any package that comes from congress that doesn't do that? >> he will vow toe any bill extend bush era tax cuts for the top 2% of age earners in this country. what the president made clear again today and has said for quite some time is that he would sign right now the bill that passed the senate that extends tax cuts for 98% of us, 98% of the american people. this is a simple and easy way to address a large chunk of the uncertainty created by the so called fiscal cliff. for those who don't engage in

beltway particle by the dead lines for these tax cuts that would cause damage to the economy if they're not dealt with. extending those tax cuts for 98% of the american people would deal with more than half in dollar terms of the impact caused by the fiscal cliff. there are other challenges we need to address including the sequester but congress ought to, the house ought to pass those tax cuts right away because it would send a tremendous positive signal to the american people that in the wake of this election, we can at the very least, come together and convert into law a bill that everyone agrees should become law, republicans and democrats alike, the president included. and we will then continue to work on those issues where we

have broader disagreement. and that's where the president has invited leaders of congress to the white house next week. that's why he will be meeting with business leaders and labor leaders and others to get their ideas about how to move forward. he does have his own very specific plan that reduces the deficit by $4 trillion, that does it in a balanced bay and we can invest in research and the elements that are so key to sustained economic growth. he understands that the message of the election that was the american people want action, not political posturing and argument. they want action and there really is in the bill that passed the senate an opportunity to do some very good work for the american people, very good work for the american economy right away to

send a signal that cooperation and compromise is possible. >> speaker boehner has made it clear even though he said that he would put revenue on the table that he would not increase rates. so does the president believe that you can achieve the revenue goals that he wants and increase the effective rate of what wealthy americans are paying without necessarily increasing the marginle rate? >> let's be clear about two things. all of the bush tax cuts are expairing on january 1. it's important that the american people understand that. if congress does not act everyone's taxes go up, everyone's. to avoid that, the house needs to pass the bill that the senate already passed so that 98% of the american people will not have their taxes go up.

separate from that the president has long endorsed and supported the idea of reforming our tax code. in fact, in his speech on tuesday night he said in the coming weeks and months imlooking forward to working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together, reducing our deficit reforming our tax code and freeing ourself from foreign oil. that has long been a principle he supports. he has put forward ideas that would drive tax reform, including the buffet rule and limiting deductions for wealthier earners. so that is a conversation that needs to take place but we need to address some of these challenge that is confront us right away. and one way to do that is to pass the tax cuts for 98% of the american people. what i haven't heard is a

plausible argument for why we shouldn't do that. republicans support these tax cuts democrats support the tax cuts and the president supports these tax cuts. so let's get them done, extend them. it would be an excellent signal for the american people that we in washington can come together and take action in a manner that the american people support. >> a couple of questions. what is the thinking behind the president going to southeast asia at such a critical i'm. is there a risk of missing an important time frame to make an agreement. >> well the president will be meeting with members of congress before his trip. and i'm absolutely certain that the work that is begun there will continue while he is traveling t. president's trip to asia will be an tubte to

build on our efforts to refocus on the asia pacific as the most rapidly glowing region in the world. and he will focus on expanded trade and ties in the region and working through regional ins tuesday tutions to make sure that nations abide by the rules of the road. you know as part of his broad ere agenda the president has focused on expanding our presence in asia. the positive economic impact of doing that will be felt for years to come and is element al to the kind of growth this president cease for the economy in the 21st century. this is important work that needs to be done. there are meeths that he'll participate in and that's something that he looks forward to. >> the second question will he

have to agree to stay on through the fiscal cliff negotiations and until they are completed? >> secretary guide ner has indicated he will stay on through naug ration and he will be a key part pant in the negotiations around the fiscal cliff issues so the president very much appreciates that. >> there are reports that general is coming to the white house to talk ability his future. can you she had any light on whether he might be moving on in fact? >> i don't have any announcementes to make on personnel matters. i would address that question to the c.i.a. and d.n.i. >> is he coming to the white house? >> i don't know. >> senator proposed one solution to the fiscal cliff challenge is closing the

loopholes as they apply to the highest income earners without changing rates? would this meet the president's test? >> the president has made clear that the only acceptable approach to dealing with our fiscal challenges and the only approach that allows us to continue to invest in areas of our economy is to take a balanced approach, to make sure that in addition to the trillion dollars of spending cuts, in addition to doing more on the spending side, in addition to doing more to reform our entitlement programs, we have to include revenue. the president made clear every day asking the wellingiest to pay a little bit more. the npt his own specific proposals has put forward measure that is include reforms

to our tax code like the buffet rule and limiting deductions for higher earners. so that would be part of the conversation. but when i comes to the bush tax cuts if a bill were to arrive on his desk, he would not sign it. >> letting the bush era tax rates expire is a powerful makism the president could use to get his way. does the president share that view? >> the president said as he said it is paramount that we not allow taxes to go up on everyone on january 1. and that's what will happen if the house does not follow the senate's lead and pass the extension of tax cuts for 98% of the american people. there is no rarble argument that i have heard and that i

think any american out there would think is rational behind the idea that we should make everyone's taxes go up just so that millionaires and billionaires and those making over 250,000 get a tax cut that's not rational thinking or something we can afford. >> does the president have full faith and confidence in general -- >> he thinks he's done an excellent job. >> stay on in his current position? >> he believes he has done an excellent job but i don't have any personnel announcementes to make from here today. >> do you plan on changing that or is this how it's going to be in the second term? clearly not. >> look the president will be taking your question in the near future. the president answered

questions of many many reporters including from your news organization. i think he gave an interview to the leader of nbc news, brian williams just days ago. he will be taking questions from the white house press corp i can assure you. the president was out there campaigning for reelection and giving interviews daily to reporters from your news organization, from news organizations across the country, from regional newspapers and television stations and answered a lot of -- >> [inaudible] >> by the head of your decision and others, the anchor of the world news tonight. so he will continue to give interviews and very soon i'm

sure looks forward to taking questions from the white house press core. >> the office issued a report looking at the fiscal cliff and if all the bush tax cuts were extended it would create 1.8 million jobs but the ones for wealthier americans were allowed to expire it would create 1.6 million jobs. that's is a lot of jobs. at a time when the president is talking about jobs are the most important issue. what are we to make of those 200,000 jobs. >> the president has put forth something to create more than those 200,000. we have been making a point for so long which is the economic benefit of tax cuts to the wealthiest earners is very very

small, minimal in comparison to the economic benefit that comes from extended tax cuts to 98% of earners in fact. and i think that's what that report reflects. >> it reflects 200,000 jobs wouldn't be created. >> but the president's proposals including the measures the president talked about in his convention speech far more jobs than that and we can do that by taking a balanced approach so the assets we have available to us do not flow to the top 2% of wage earners but go to investments in infrastructure and clean energy and other. >> i'm not talking about whether or not the president gets his jobs bill passed i'm talking about the fiscal cliff

and you're not disputing the assertion that 200,000 fewer jobs will be created if the president gets his way. it's not small to 200,000 families. >> the president said we can we can't afford to extend tax breaks to the wealthiest 2%. we have to reduce our deficit which savings from not extending those tax cuts would go toward. you have to look at the president's overall package which would create more jobs than extending the tax cuts because the c.b.o. shows that tax cuts to the top 2% of american earners is a highly inefficient way of helping our economy, it just not have the economic impact that giving tax cuts to the middle class does. and that's been a president

that's been the president's approach all along. >> at what point does the white house plan on providing the president's whereabouts on the night of september 11, 201. >> as you know the incident in benghazi, the attack on our deposit plo mat i can facility has been under investigation by the f.b.i. it is part of a broader investigation by the accountability review board set up at the president's direction by the secretary of state. no one is more interested in getting to the bottom of what happened than the president is. no one is more interested in bringing to justice those who took the lives of four americans than the president and he is very interested in having the results of those investigations vo provided to him and the american public. >> none of that is going to

talk about the? >> the president has been forth right about when he found out about it that he directed actions be taken immediately to provide support for our embassy facilities not just in benghazi but in tripoli and around the world and every action he's taken was driven by -- >> there was a 5:00 meeting but what about after that? >> the president was made aware of developments throughout the evening and days ensuing so i'm not sure what you're question is. >> there were all [indiscernible] . >> when you talk about military we've been answering questions and we'll have more information to provide about the military's response to the president's direction to. this i think we've answered questions in refuting incorrect

and poorly reported allegations about their activities and response to that tragic events and we'll continue to oh do that. nobody is more interested than this president to find out exactly what happened and bring to justice those who killed four americans and take measures to ensure that never happens again. that is not at all what i said. >> when are we going to get one? >> i don't have a date certain for you but we will continue to provide you. >> i'm not sure the investigation looks at our overall response to what happened and the account nlt review board looks at our deposit mat i can security issues and what posture we need to take with regard to our facilities there. >> [indiscernible] >> i think a lot of information has been provided by our intelligence community by the defense department thazz has

been responsive to questions about this and we'll continue to provide information about. this i think one inescapable fact about this is we have endeavored to provide as much information as we could to do in response to your questions and as some information has come to light that further collar fice what happened we provide that to you as well. >> decades when a president is re-elected comes out within a day or two or three and does a press conference. why did he decide to break with that tradition and give a speech and not take questions? >> the president will be taking your questions i'm sure in the near future. he looks forward to it. he gave a statement today which addresses some very important issue that is we in washington have to take action on in the veneer future. that's why he's invited the leaders of congress to the white house and he'll be meeting with leaders of the

business and labor and civic leaders to talk about the actions that we need to take to ensure we grow our economy and put people back to work. jobs and economic growth have long been the president's number one priority. they are clearly as we saw in the election earlier this week the people's number one priority and that's why we have to take action right away. he is doing that as e he made clear in his remarks today. in terms of engaging with the press i can assure you he'll be doing that in short order. >> when it comes to the fiscal cliff is he willing to let all the bush tax cuts expire if he can't get a deal on the tax cuts for the wealthiest america? how can you be sure americans will blame republicans. >> the american people want and expect action. it isn't about blame.

the question you're asking has to be asked to congress. the president can't pass a law through the house. a lass has passed that extends tax cuts for 98% of the american people. everyone who makes under $250,000. 97% of small businesses, the president made clear today he would sign that law tomorrow if the house were to pass it and it makes all the sense for the world for the house to do that. what is the argument for not passing it? that we're going to force everyone to have a higher tax bill next year just because millionaires and billionaires didn't get a tax cut? that's a nonsensical argument and it is certainly not what the american people believe should be done in washington as i think has been deman straited and we need to take on a number of issues including tax reform. but one thing we can do right

away is send a signal to the american people that washington is working and the two sides can come together and takes actions on tax cuts that everyone supports, tax cuts that have already passed the senate and members of the house of both parties say they support. so let's get that done and don't do the work the president talked about today. >> the other part of the fiscal cliff are these spending cuts. what do you think should happen there because prib said we are not going over the cliff so what is the alternative? >> that is part of what the president talked about today in terms of engaging with leaders in congress. we have a number of issueles, two baskets that tax and revenue issues and then the sequester issues and we need to get to work to resolve them. >> what are the options? >> i think the president put together a clear plan and he talked about it today.

his propose toll cut spending by $4 trillion addresses the spending cuts called for the in the budget control act that led to the sequester and there are ways to do this as we've all discussed and that you've covered for months and months now as we've had these debates about how we address our fiscal challenges t. president's principle is we have to take a balanced approach. we have to do more when it comes to reducing spending including reforming our entitlements in a way that strengthens medicare. we have to ask the wealthiest to pay more. revenues have to be part of this equation and that's a position that isn't just the president's position or democrats. it's a position shared by some elected republicans and it's a position supported by image tiss of the american people not

just democrats, it's a position endorsed by independent bipartisan commissions. it's a position that independent economist endorse. and i think when speaker boehner and others have talked about when revenue is on the table, i think that is a sign that the president appreciates that we need to compromise here and come together and take a balanced approach. >> what can you tell us about secretary clinton's future? she has said something about wanting to move on after a first term, any word on her replacement? >> i have no personnel announcementes to make of any kind. and yes secretary clinton spoke to this and i would point you to her statements. the president is greatly appreciative of her service as secretary of state and thinks she has been a remarkable secretary of state. but i will leave it to her to address her future.

>> i want to thank you for mentioning brian williams and all the people that interviewed the president. fox would like to be added to that list. on benghazi jake asked you about the president and what he will say in terms of a time line. next week there are three different congressional committees reviewing the matter. you said that the white house wants to cooperate. so there has been no precedent for president tses to go testify on when i will. is the president willing to end up secretary clinton? >> i can tell you we are cooperating with congress in these hearings and will continue to cooperate. we've been cooperative with the investigations and will continue to be. i don't have specifics about who is going up to talk to the

congressional committees looking at this but i may be able to get more details for you. but we have been and will continue to cooperate on this issue. >> on the issue of transparency in news conferences, i want to make note you have been helpful in trying to work through the differences we had on access. but i looked up and saw this morning this video of the president talking to his campaign aids and he got emotional. and went back and on wednesdays that was a closed press event where tv networks and newspapers were closed it was a closde campaign event. it was taped and decided to release it. what's the thinking if it's a closed event for his campaign to film it and release it but why wouldn't you let our cameras in? >> it was a meeting with his campaign team that had worked very hard over many weeks and months and the campaign

released that video which i think was perfectly appropriate and fine. it wasn't a media event or press event. it was a meeting with his campaign team. and he talked not about benghazi or the fiscal cliff but he spoke from his heart about how much he appreciated the young people especially in that office who had worked so hard to on that campaign and how in his eyes those young people represented a promise about america's future that is very inspiring. and i don't think that this was -- >> given the great interest of the election and mms of people participating, wouldn't the press want to be in for these remarks? >> i'm happy to take questions a lot about the white house press core, we can do that as

much as you like. but i think what the president was doing was having a meeting with the very young members of his campaign team who worked their hearts out and he was just thanking them and the campaign released avid owe in which he thanked them. >> you said the president wants to sign the extension of the bush tax cuts and do tax reform. how can you do both? you're messing with the tax code. you can't do tax reform and make permanent something that is for 98%. so are you saying you want tax reform for the top 2%? >> i don't think they are separate issues at all. we have a deadline and that deadline is all of these tax cuts will expire on january 1. everyone's taxes go up on january 1 unless congress takes action.

we can ensure that taxes on 98% of the american people do not go up on january 1 if the house simply passes a bill that's passed the senate and the president made clear he would sign that bill immediately. and what is significant about that -- >> it's a permanent extension? >> i believe it's a temporary extension. >> how do you do tax re230r78? >> by sitting down with members of both parties in congress and working out a kind of tax -- the need for me re forming our tax code is something the president has talked about frequently and it's part of his plan. >> why do it temporarily? >> because we can't afford it and the president will not do it. if a bill were to reach his desk that extends tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% he will not

sign it. >> for any amount of time? >> he will not sign it. we cannot afford it. the president hasn't been hiding the ball on this. he spoke about this every day. it was part of his speech and interviews he gave and it's a principle that he believes is very important which we need to give tax cuts to 98% of the american people because it's right for the families and it's right for the economy. this is the point i wanted to make because i don't want to the extent that there are a handful of people or more out there who are watching this who aren't familiar with the fiscal cliff and tax cut dead lines. we're talking about a measure that would give tax cuts to the 98% of the people. tax cuts that everyone supports. i can't find anyone who doesn't support giving tax cuts to the middle class. so let's pass it and sign it into law, get it done and then continue to work on the other challenge that is face us. >> the report also said if

everything goes over the so-called fiscal cliff, while it would be recession nare for 2013, actually the economy will start coming along by 2018, so is there a real penalty for going over the cliff? >> absolutely. we need to take action to avoid that and that's why it's so important the american people and the american economy -- >> long term this would be good for the american economy, 5.5% unemployment by 2018. by 2018 long-term solvency. >> that's not the approach we should take or need to take to bring about the discipline to bring about economic growth and job creation. that's why balance is so important. that's why the president has been fighting for a balanced

plan for so long. his plan actually cuts spending by $4 trillion and does it in a way to continue to invest in aspects of the economy that are essential to our competitiveness and long-term growth and makes sure that the middle class is not bearing the burden of getting our fiscal house in order. and that's the problem with an approach that gives massive tax cuts to the wealthy and it's also the problem with ash trarle cut spending for in a way that the sequester does because it causes great harm to people who should not be bearing the burden of this on their own. this is something that can be addressed in a smart way and that's the balanced approach the president put forward. >> i know without going into every part of his plan, does that mean he would be open to

structural changes in social security and medicare which is what boehner said have to be on the table, potentially racing the age? >> we can and address social security to make it stronger. but it is also the case it has not been and continues not to be an immediate threat -- it is not the creation or problem behind our deficit debt at the time. >> -- the president's plan -- first of all i won't negotiate the details of compromise the president hopes to reach -- >> the president's position here has been clear this is something we can and should address 234 a way that streppingtens the program but we need to address non-defense discretionary spending, revenue swerlts healthcare programs like medicare and medicaid.

>> speaker boehner and mitch mcconnell said they have to have that on the able. >> they will be meeting next week. >> human rights groups have objected to the president's upcoming trips saying that the democratic reforms taking place in burma haven't gone far enough and or also that the ones in cambodia may be backsliding. how do you avoid the perception that the president has put a samp of approval on these governments. >> well in burma the president will use that visit to press for improvements in the relationship between the united states and burma. there has been extraordinary progress made since last year

but much more work needs to be done to advance democratic change. supporting democracy and human right social security a fundamental principle behind the president's policy in the region and the world and he will carry that message on this trip >> [indiscernible] . >> i think this is historic and important but it will be clear his message will be to recognize the progress that's been made but there is more work that needs to be done. >> you said the new secretary is going to be a key part pant in these discussions so if he committed to staying on until the end of the negotiations? >> he's committed to staying on through the inauguration. i don't have a specific day he will depart and i don't want to speak hypothetically about how

long negotiations about our budget issues will take. i mean i think there is an opportunity for them to move quickly. >> but if they don't happen january 20, he would leave in the middle? >> that's a hypothetical i can't address. i'll let the general address this and i'm sure that we'll have something from the president later. >> in terms of what the president considers a balanced approach, if the rates stay the same but the revenue lost between the bush era rates and the clinton era rates is made up word for closing loopholes for top earners, doesn't that mean the wellingthi pay more? >> you and chuck get the same answer i'm not going to negotiate meet thags haven't

taken plause but the president is clear he will not sign a bill into law that extend upper income tax cuts from the bush era. two as he said in his speech on tuesday night in chicago and hs been clear all along he is committed to reforming the tax code. he has put forward principle that is include the buffet principle and reducing deduction that is wealthiest americans can take. so i don't want to get into the details of how that works. what he will not do is sign an extension of the bush era tax cuts. >> even fits pared with closing deductions and closing loopholes for the top earners sm >> i'm not going to negotiate the details. what i will say is that he will not sign an extension of the bush era tax cuts for the top

2% and he has put forward principles to reform ling our tax code. he is committed to do that and he recognizes there are ways to address the issue of the need for the wealthiest to pay a little bit more that include cutting deductions and we've wut that in our own plans. but i don't want to get into what the details will look like or draw lines around proposals that work or others that don't. but the president's principles are clear. we have to have balance. he will continue to insist that the house pass tax cuts for 98% of the american people that make less than $250 thoirks a year. tax cuts that everyone supports. that that will address a chunk, more than half of the so-called fiscal cliff. and then he will work with members of congress to address

these other issues including the sequester and tax reform. >> temperature said he was invited leaders here, is that scheduled for next week? >> i don't have any specific scheduling updates for you but when we have more information we'll let you know. >> what comfort does the president give allies that his administration will be able to reach some of a deal to prevent the u.s. and europe from going into another recession? >> obviously europe is dealing with their own challenges. we are connected and europe is our largest trading partner. i would point you simply to what the president said today which is that he appreciates what the speaker of the house has said this week that

suggests a willing tons compromise. the president has made clear that he is willing to compromise. he thinks one of the clearest meassasses that the american people sent on tuesday was they want action and they don't want compromise to be a dirty word in washington. that we need to come together to deal with the challenge that is confront us that can only be resolved in a bipartisan manner when we have a government that continues to be divided. the president is confident we can do it if there is a willingness to approach this in a balanced way and compromise. and thus far he is hopeful that others in washington are taking that approach. >> will he be reaching out to any of the european leaders? >> he is in regular communication with lead ners europe. but i don't have any

conversationes to preview for you. >> what's the first step on immigration reform which the president said was a top 3r50eur79? >> it was one of the four things the president mentioned on tuesday night. i don't have any meetings or steps to preview for you but it is something that we have to get done. >> the other party who he seize is a good partner to work with? >> there should be in the future because the way to address this issue is in a comprehensive approach. there has been bipartisan support for that approach in the past and the president is hopeful there will be in the veneer future. >> does he view it as incumbent upon him to do something proactive on this issue?

>> the president is and will be engaged thon issue and i think what is obvious for students of washington is that this is something that can only be done in a bipartisan way. the president was able to address a component of this but whether it's the dream act or comprehensive immigration reform, these are matters that have to be dealt with by congress in a bipartisan way. but you can be assured the president will be pushing congress to get something done. >> [indiscernible] >> i can tell you you will have something from the president on it today. >> the general c.i.a. director resigned over an extramarital affair. can you tell us about this? >> any information on this i would ask you to await for

something from the c.i.a. i will tell you the president will address this withi do not o give to you, jake. i do not have any details to give to you. >> the president mentioned he was open to health savings. the only thing he said about medicare was protecting it. has he done anything to prepare cuts to the health care program? is he rolling out cuts that affect beneficiaries directly? >> this is what we learned about the budget debate we have had over the past several months and years. that is you can get savings out

of our health care programs that strengthen those programs and that is what the president did in the affordable care at. you can continue to take measures that strengthen those programs that do not harm beneficiaries. you do not need to be voucherize medicare. that has been on the table for a long time from some proponents of that approach. we should not be asking our seniors to pony up while we are giving tax cuts to corporations and wealthy americans. i am not going to get into the details. the position has been very clear. despite a lot of missed characterization's --

mischaracterizations, extending the life of medicare that ensures benefits for medicare recipients and he believes there are more measures we can take to continue to do that. we do not have to do something radical along alliance that had been proposed as long as we're willing to take a balanced approach. the president supports a balanced approach. he does not support an unbalanced approach with measures that would do significant harm to our seniors. >> the white house has made clear that he was willing to raise the medicare eligibility age. that is something that directly affect beneficiaries. >> i am not going to get into a review of the past.

what the president is committed to in workinis working in a bipn way that saves $4 trillion and allows us to invest in elements of our economy that allow us to grow. it has to include asking the wealthiest americans to pay a little more. he is meeting with members of congress next week and others in business and labor and the civic communities on these issues. i am not going to draw a red lines from here today. >> the president said on election night he wanted to meet with mitt romney. >> i do not have an update on that for you. scott? >> does the white house have a plan on how to approach the referendum on legal marijuana?

>> what i can tell you on that is the department of justice has said they are reviewing those initiatives. i would direct you to them for updates on that. >> governor patrick is coming to dinner with the president tonight. should there be another person for the cabinet? can you talk about the dinner and what is happening? >> i have no statement to make about personnel matters. as you know, the president and the governor are good friends. they have had meals frequently over the past several years. i am sure they are looking forward to catching up. >> are we going to find out this

afternoon who is in charge at the cia? >> i do not have more information on that. >> he thinks the debt limit should be part of those talks. >> i am not going to get into specifics about what the congressional leaders and the president will be discussing next week and what the negotiations going forward will look like. what i can tell you is we have some deadlines that we have to contend with, deadlines of december 31 on taxes and spending and we need to deal with those issues. if the house does not passed the senate bill that gives tax cuts to 98% of the american people, everyone's taxes will go upper on january 1.

it must not pass because everyone in washington supports keeping those tax cuts in place for 98% of the american people. in terms of a bigger conversation would look like, i am not going to negotiate that from here. that is not something i have a specific date on. what i do know is a deadline perceived that and that is december 31 for tax cuts for 98% of the american people that will be very hard to explain for congress and the house that they did not extend tax cuts for middle-class americans because they insisted on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. i think republicans and democrats support extending these tax cuts for 98% of the

american people. we believe that is a quick and relatively easy step the house can take to help address some of these challenges right away. thank you, gentlemen. on sunday, president obama and mrs. obama will participate in veterans day activities at arlington national cemetery them back on monday, the scheduled events. on tuesday, events at the white house. on wednesday, the president will hold a news conference. [laughter] you are all invited. vacation is cancelled. have a time for you. not a prime-time.

>> it is about "modern family." >> on thursday, the president will travel to the new york city area to view of the storm damage and talk to citizens recovering from the storm and sank first responders. on friday, the president will meet with congressional leaders at the white house on friday. >> he is not meeting with anybody before then -- >> i can tell you that the congressional leaders meeting will take place on friday at the white house came bang think you all very much. house. thank you all very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> jay carney wrapping up his briefing here. you heard him sidestepped a question from a reporter about the cia director. he was at the white house earlier today, and david petraeus has resigned his post due to an extramarital affair. president obama may released a statement about it today. jay carney also answering and number of questions related to the remarks about the nation earlier on some of the economic issues facing the nation. house speaker john boehner responded to the announcement. he said in his statement -- senate minority leader mitch

mcconnell has also released a statement, and here is a portion. >> if there is a mandate in yesterday's results, it is a mandate for us to find in a way to get it to work. in the weeks and months ahead, we face a series of tremendous challenges and great opportunity. >> the american people want us to work together. democrats want us to work together. republicans want us to work together to in bank they want a balanced approach. >> the newly elected congress

starts work in january but the current congress still has work to do in the lame duck session. work is expected on the impending fiscal cliff. follow all of the floor debates starting tuesday with live house coverage on c-span and the senate on c-span2. >> c-span in by its middle and high school students to send a message to the president through a short video. for a chance to win the grand prize of $5,000. the competition is open to students grades 6 through 12. for complete details and rules, go online. >> voter turnout was down from

2008 for both republicans and democrats in every state and the district of columbia except for iowa and louisiana. the bipartisan policy center hosted this event. it is 90 minutes. >> ok, folks. why don't we go ahead and start? we are live on c-span3 this morning so everyone should be paved the especially the panelists. my name is dan glickman. i am a senior fellow here. my colleague john fortier will introduce the panelists but i will ask the 10 questions about

this election and not in any particular order or with priority. these were the questions that relate to both the congressional and presidential races. was a case of good democratic candidate, bad republican candidate, or the message? two. why was there no similar shellacking of republicans in the house races? outside spending on races set records but it did not seem to make much of a difference in the outcomes. was it all the waste of money? was this a status quo election? is there something more profound going on? was there and the mandate for

anything coming out of this election? if there was or was not, what was the main message from the people in this country? if the country is split as the pundits say, income, gender, grumpy old men, class, income, or rural versus urban as you look at the map. are the demographic trends and changes reflect a revolutionary change in american politics? ron paul says the election shows the u.s. is now far gone. are we really seeing a strong resurgence of participatory democracy with a whole litany of new participants? finally, number 10. for our fiscal cliff and monumental decisions affecting

the debt, deficit, sequestration, taxes, and everything else them back what in the results put us closer to its solution? given those 10 questions, i turned it over to my distinguished colleague, john fortier. >> now we are going to quiz the panelists on those questions. i am going to introduce the panelists. each of us will give a take on what we think about the election. i am going to keep the biographies brief. these are very accomplished people. ron brownstein is the editorial director of "national journal" for many years and has covered political campaigns for a long time and is one of our premier commentators on politics.

curtis gans is the director for the center for the study of the american electorate, the nation's leading expert on voter turnout. we have a recently released report from the bipartisan policy center. tis will tell you about turnout on the local and national level. kristen soltis anderson is vice president at the winston group and an analyst on several networks on political matters. david wasserman is the house added there of the "cook political report." he probably has his finger on house prices more than anyone else here in washington. i am going to say a few words. we will have some discussion and then go to the audience. it was a close election. we kept saying that.

the president wins. it was relatively close. there were some gains in congress for the president's party. some surprising ones in the senate and a few in the house. in many ways, it looks a lot like 2004 where president bush was reelected and gained a few seats in both houses. a relatively close election. all of the votes are not in yet. i think by the time we report all the votes, the president's margin is going to grow and i think we will end up with a margin between obama and romney of about 3.5%. not as close as what we have been talking about for a good deal of the election. i know a lot of people have talked about nate silver and people modeling polls.

i am a political scientist and and sometimes critical of some of their models. they tried to predict what happens in the elections. they try to have some simple components. how we have been improving over the year. you can say that even a little bit of growth matters. a president who was in the middle for much of this year and about a 1.5% growth. you probably get a winner of 3% and that is what many of the models look like. many thought the economy was so bad. what is one thing that was really wrong about our analysis of the election?

i am going to take a focus on ohio. people thought when ohio is called, that is when we knew president obama was president. there was an interesting line that went on for a while. the polls look much better for mitt romney on the national level them back before the hurricane, mitt romney had a lead in the national polls. maybe the president moved ohio. ohio which is usually a bit of a republican state but seemed to be a democratic state. if you look at what is likely to end up the final results, certainly the president wo nohio maybe 2.5 percentage point at the end of the day. ohio did not really look so different relative to the nation that it usually does.

it was a little bit republican again. my boulder claim was going to be maybe this auto bailout story was not true at all. i think it is overblown. if you look at ohio, there were three groups were obama improved his status or he did not lose as much. yes, there were some counties where the auto bailout seemed to help. they performed a little bit better for obama relative than other county's. i doubt some of the exit polls they could be this high. african americans in ohio in 2004 were at 15% of the electorate. there was a large african american turnout. there was also a large white

turnout where parts of the obama coalition came out. the taco bell did not fundamentally change ohio -- the auto bailout did not fundamentally change ohio. there were some things that went in both directions. what happened in the state legislatures? you can see some big wave ele ctions like in 2010. the early members saw a move in the democratic direction -- numbers saw a move in the democratic direction. if you look at the blue states, there was some movement in the but thereirection was also some moves in the republican direction.

republicans picked up legislature in arkansas, west virginia, alaska. both parts of the country pushing in different directions. i think the election is also something of a deepening of polarization. 1993 or 1992, there were 19 democrats who helped republican seats. that number has been declining and declining. there were also some republicans who used to hold seats for democrats for president. before this election, we were down to nine democrats and two republicans who met that definition them tha. in a way, the realignment continues. republicans are sitting in republican seats even though the

numbers did not change dramatically in the house. there is a lot of talk about demographics and i am sure we are going to hear that on the panel. i think it is important to look and see in some ways the president and the democratic party have moved to have a greater share of liberals be a part of their base. andr numbers from 2004 2008. conservatives are still a larger number. i had a reporter called me this week talking about us as a center-right country. i think we have moved some. the democrat party has a larger of its base in liberal's. s. i do think that the demographics make a difference but part of

that change is the democrats have a larger number of liberals in their coalition. i am going to stop there and turn to ron. >> there is no question this election will be seen as a milestone. not even so much politically and culturally. it was a moment where everyone realize this is not the same place we used to be. the single most telling fact about this election is mitt romney brand as well among white voters as in the republican challenger ever in the history of polling. 56% in 1980, 59% in 1988, and 60% in 1952. that was sufficient to win a landslide election. in this case, mitt romney won

59% of white voters and lost. but not the competitive in the electoral college in the end. a terrific political scientist told me for the majority of history white majorites have ruled. in 2008, president obama lsot whites by double digits and won. in this election, he lost them by 20 points and won because democrat republicans are conceding once again in this election 80% of their growing growinghe minority population. if he matched that again and they were at least that much of

the vote, he could get a majority of the national vote with only about 40% of whites. 80, 39, 28. the fundamental fallacy that many conservative analysts had was the assumption that 2008 was the result of some surge because of barack obama. it was a continuation of the trend line. we have gone from 91% to 72% over that time. it has tracked the change in the eligible voter population. the demography offers no respite from the republican party. i think you'll see a big debate inside the gop about how they deal with this changing america.

very quietly and somewhat obscured by the times election of 2000, democrats have now won the popular vote in the last five elections. when i was first covering politics, that was the phrase. republicans had a lock. the shoe is now complete on the other foot. there are 18 states that have voted democratic in every state in every election since 1992. that is the most states they have one that often ever. those 18 states, only three of them were contested at all in this election. pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. obama was able to win all of

them. until republicans can preach that blue wall, -- breach that blue wall. what you saw in this eelction, on the one hand, the evolution of the coalition in terms of democrats understanding who they are and who they represent, but also the ability to transcend that. the real story of this election is -- it is ironic. in many ways, this is the triumph 40 years later of the coalition invasion of young people, minorities, and socially liberal white voters. barack obama won only 36% nationally of white college voters who were the foundation of the coalition from the 1930's to the 1960's. 80% of minorities and 42% of

college educated white voters. what he was able to do was to transcend that coalition in those red states. obama was able to put together a very distinctive coalitions in the two bands of swing states. there are now two bands of swing states. we have had a series of state come into play. in the southeast. in the southwest. he relied on this new coalition. he had miserable numbers among working-class whites. he was able to win in of young people, minorities, and college educated whites as well as women. in the rust belt, he performed much better, around 50% among women in ohio and wisconsin.

i believe it is largely cultural presidents of the bain attack in a region that gets the story. he was able to put together two coalitions. his share of the vote declined in 45 of 50 states. he is the first president since andrew jackson to be reelected to have a smaller share of the vote than when he won. at this point, he is tied with george w. bush for the narrowest margin of victory ever for is successfully reelected president. we are a very divided country. demography gives democrats an opportunity to build a majority coalition. they have won the popular vote

five out of six presidential elections. it is a real challenge in executing the opportunity that the democratic -- demographic change provides. the campaign showed the weakness of both sides been the republicans are unable to win 20% of minorities. both parties are looking at structural challenges in who they speak to them back the chance that obama had to build a robust coalition was not realised, but demography still gives democrats an edge on the presidential level. >> i've focused very heavily on young voters. it has been my personal crusade to figure out how the right can win more young voters back onto our site. in 2008, it was an historic election.

barack obama won young voters by 34 points. ron reagan won young voters by 19 points. i would often hear back from my colleagues to do things that were missed. the first is that young voters do not turn out. there are not that many voters. i think this election has busted that myth. turnout was down overall but young voters went from 18% to 19% of the electorate. this said they were less enthusiastic and lost faith and the president but they still turned out and the other myth is the -- turned out. the other myth is if you are 20

and you are conservative, you have no hard but if you are 40 and liberal, you have no brain. when they buy a house and start paying taxes, they will all become conservative bent political science -- conservative. political science says that is not the case. an interesting study shows you were more likely to be republican today than those who were in the older or younger cohorts. in this election, could news or bad news for the republican party? republicans lost. among young voters, barack obama performed worst among young voters relative to his performance in 2008 than any

other voter group. he fell off among every age group except for one. this is what republicans ought to be concerning. barack obama improved his performance among 30-somethings. why is that the case? it is my belief that this is the sort of oldest tonguye of the millennials. they stuck with the president. it is important to recognize for republicans that it is still unsustainable. that is one major point that i hope my republican colleagues will take away from the selection. you cannot separate out --

the increase in young voters when you look at the exit polls and how they are broken out by percentages, young white voters stayed. it was young latino voters that increased. republican performance among young voters will inevitably be linked to their ability to expand their attractiveness to latino voters. i don't think all is lost. eight years ago, george w. bush won 40% of latino voters. that is a really dramatic shift in eight years. i do not think it is irretrievable. if republicans can find a way to change the perception that they simply do not care about people outside their coalition is going to be the first critical step.

mitt romney winds on the question who do you trust more. he also wins on the economy about a plan for the future. the margin is enormous. if young people and voters outside the republican coalition think that republican policies that are not for them, we are going to have a long hard road trying to win elections in the future. because so impressed be before i knew her, she was a lead singer for one of my favorite cover bands in d.c. i m blown away by her multitalented. there were three books vindicated by the election this week. the emerging democratic majority. "the big sort."

"coming apart." i would recommend all three of them. why the emerging democratic majority? the democratic coalition is growing, the republican coalition is shrinking. if you look at non-white voters, what is so striking to me is that non-white voters are sufficient to allow democrats to win statewide races increase in lake. -- creasing lay. non-white voters are so clustered around the country that republicans have a built in advantage to win the house. it is not random that the presidency and the senate stayed in democrat control and the house state republican. between 1968 and 2008, the

democrats controlled the congress and the house for 28 out of those 40 years. we basically had that symmetry. i think we could be moving to a new normal in the opposite direction where republicans have a natural advantage to control congress because of the concentration, and democrats have a natural advantage to win the electoral college. we will see exceptions to the roll over the next 40 years. this is the defacto outcome given the nature of the american electoral coalition these days. 51% of voters who cast ballots for democrats, that was only sufficient to get about 200 out of 435 seats in the house. that is when you realize the deck is stacked against

democrats and not just due to gerrymandering. the results of redistricting in a new repor belt in a repor this week. highly advocated a white liberal voters. i really never thought democrats had a shot to win in the house. i was impressed they were able to pick up seven or eight seats. when you really delve into the president obama had a 1% 10 problem that had nothing to do with a personal pedigrees of mitt romney or barack obama. obama won his margin of victory in 2008 from 29 out of the other

counties. that was the lowest number of counties and the president has ever won an election with. he set a new record this week. the likely one less than 25 percent of america's counties while winning 332 electoral college votes which is absolutely amazing. out of the 473 counties with a cracker barrel, obama won just 29% of those counties. obama by contrast won 77 percent of counties with a whole foods market. i was doing my schtick before a group of professionals in arlington. a young woman said did you mean

crate and barrel? i never heard of a cracker barrel. i think that speaks to the mentality of the democratic base these days. that 48% gap between whole foods counties and cracker barrel counties, when you look at election results going back to 1992, it was 20% in 1992, 25% in 1996, 40% in 2004, 44% in 2008, 48% in 2012. i would venture to guess it will be over 50% in 2016. what is the moral of the story crestar culture and lifestyle are driving boating. -- what is the moral of the story? culture and lifestyle are driving voting. as far as coming apart, i think we are coming apart in congress.

take a look at the changing demographics. it is a real pet peeve of mine when people say it is a status quo election. this is the first year in history where minorities and women will become a majority of the democratic caucus in the house. it is never going to go back to being a majority of white men ever again been big white men were 53% of the democratic caucus. they will be 47% after the election. republicans have more than just a 47% time problem with respect to mitt romney. good dogs were cut in half in this election for the second straight time. they were cut from 56 down to 26 after 2010. now it is going to be about 14

depending on the final result from north carolina. republicans are going in the opposite direction. 86 percent of republicans were white men in the house. they lost one latino. the lost one african american. they lost nine women -- six or seven women abandon their share of white men went up from 86% to 88%. there is that 41% gap. again, an absolute record. the tea party influence in the house i would argue went up. when we talk about this come to jesus moment that republicans are going to need to have to move to the metal to attract more latino voters, i do not see the incentive among house

republicans because they are answering to increasingly white districts that they have drawn for themselves. they have also drawn themselves into an electoral bubble, a total alternate universe from the one that democrats are living in. i do not see an incentive to compromise on these big ticket issues when they are faced with primaries down the road in 2014 if they are going to do anything to move toward additional revenue or any of the policies. a couple of the assumptions that we made that were wrong. we thought according to the gallup poll data that showed conservatives were up before the election and young voters were down 11 points, what happened with that? this shocked me on election night them th. some of the places where young

voters dominated particularly in places like virginia. all of these college towns. i was expecting the sruge vourge to go down a little bit. those cities turned out higher than they did in 2012. what about those angry conservatives that were fired up? take a look at a place like oklahoma for example where . a n energy state. the turn out there looks to be down more than 5%. a couple of wrong assumptions that we made. overall, this is a watershed election because we have 84 house freshmen. when you combine that with 82 surviving members from the class of 2010, 166 members, more than one-third of the house that will

have less than three years of experience when congress takes office in january. a huge new freshman class, a steep learning curve, and get ready for fireworks. >> many of you have the report and the bbc's report on voter turnout. >> the first thing i want to do is thank the bbc and dan and john for making this report possible. it would not have been done without them. i am usually the chicken little of the analyst industry on the issue of turnout, and this time i was the chicken little and it turned out to be right. the eligible citizen population increased by 8 million this year i think when all of the votes are counted. the numerical turnout will have

gone down by 5 million and may be even more. we will probably have about 126 million voting this time around. we went from 62.3% turnout of eligible citizens in 2008 which was the highest since after women were given the right to vote in 1920. it was the highest since 1960. we are down this time i think to about 57.5% of eligibles. which is lower than 2008, lower than 2004, but slightly above 2000. across the country, only two

states had a higher percentage turnout this election than in 20008. they were iowa and louisiana. only six states had a higher numerical turnout than 2008. i will read the onhes that were. delaware, iowa, north dakota, and wisconsin. only three of those were hotly contested states. there was a big break that the electoral college cause for us because essentially because of the electoral college will limit the number of state where we have campaigns. i added pennsylvania. 10 battleground state. the turnout was 62.8%. in the rest, turnout was 54.8%.

if you adjust a little bit for a new york and new jersey have been low turnout because of sand;y, turnout in the state was 55.3%. what i don't want to talk about is demographic subgroups. andy and i are probably the only people in the world who do not use exit polls for dredging the turnout for subgroups. -- judging the turnout for subgroups. i am silent until six or eight months from now when the census bureau comes out with its current population survey. that is 90,000 people and it is a much more reliable measure. when people say it turned out

between 18% and 19% of african americans, that is too small of a measure to make that claim. we no african americans turned out in substantial numbers. we know young people did not have the same drop-off as people predicted including me. i do not want to quantify that. i want to talk about something slightly different. our turnout increased beginning in 2000 through 2008. it increased in small amounts from 2000 to 2002. it increased substantially in 2004. for the midterm, it increased

substantially in 2006. two percentage points in 2008. by one percentage point in 2010 as opposed to 2006. now it is going down. the key central question is what is the reality of our future? is this a blip in an upward momentum? is this a restoration of the downward trend? i think two things speak to the resumption of the downward trend. states wherethe there was no presidential campaign. i think that is a better judge of reality than the billions of dollars that were spent in the

battleground states and the enormous activity that helped mobilize which you could not do nationally. that is an artificial increase. if you look at registration statistics which is in this report, democratic registration this year went down in a little bit. two percentage points. republican registration held at the same level. democrats at 36% of the eligible vote. republican said at about 27%. registering for none of the above went through its 13th consecutive increase said that it is now in the panoply of partisan identification at 23%. i think both of those things speak to a long term

disengagement rather than a continuing rise. we will know a lot more in 2014 and 2016. my belief is 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 were driven by polarization that was deeply emotional. part of the decline this time i think was due a little bit to diminished hope. and therefore other thing sthat influenced low and declining turnout will rise to the floor again. >> can you please not say the words 2016 and again? [laughter] let's take some time to talk and then turn to the audience. the polls.

people talked about the polls allot them back republicans complained they were understating their support. at the end of the day polls turned out to be understating the democrats support. i think they looked like obama was going to win a week before but we did not expect the margin. what was going on there? >> the polls were generally right. with some very big exceptions. the golden name in this was gallup. think we are going to ask them to explain how they had -- i think we are going to have to ask them to explain how they had that: model. what was the electorate going to

be? what was the white share and the non-white share going to be? the obama campaign manager projected early this year that it was going to rise from 26 to 28. virtually no pole ever all year anybody put it at that number. most would have it at 26. last year, many were 25 or 24. i think republicans were in vision in that. in fact, it came in on the long- term track at 28. when we are going through this frenzy of the fall, projecting to many democrats. if yuou assume republicans would equal democrats or even exceed them, let me just point out that in modern times, republicans

have equaled democrats in 2004 the only time ever in the president of election white or 77% of that electorate. they were 78% of the electorate. point.ck i felt some of these pollsters were acting more as therapists than pollsters. there were basically there to tell a fox audience that this was the america that he remembered, that nothing has changed. -- tha tthey remembered, that nothing has changed. the long term trajectory is an unmistakable.

i think that was the core issue in the polling. the white and the non-white percentage. >> the challenge is that you can do a land line pole in the republican primary and he will probably hit it pretty close to right. it does not work for this electorate. young people do not have land lines, non-white, the folks that many pollsters were saying they were not going to turn out this time. a lot of pollsters were including cell phones in their samples but was it enough? what do we need to do to make sure we are reaching those people? >> dan green put out a paper on its last week saying that obama was going to win by 3.5 points. >> i agree with you on the demographic challenges for

republicans them that they did come back some but i think some people expected it would come back more pain than they did in some very red states. what the republicans do this time? was it not enough compared to the demographics? >> i am surprised with a bounced back. -- i am surprised where they bounced back. 1 benefited from redistricting but in 2012 from those who voted straight ticket sunk him. we saw the democrats lose some seats in kentucky, western pennsylvania, white working class, blue-collar areas where democrats are having a hard time coming back. in contrast, we saw the

democrats surge in some parts of the country where republicans were not even anticipating there were as many democrats to come out and vote as there were. florida, for example. i think it is the poster child for places where republicans were not anticipating that this new latino population would come out and vote. the latino population had a very big effect as well them back positions in house place places like illinois, orlando, and even miami dade. the reason why obama was able to hang on to florida we profess of non-cuban hispanics and miami dade. -- because of non-cuban

hispanics and miami dad. >> i think republicans bounceback as well as they could. mitt romney one more than ronald reagan did in 1980. he did they're running better among college the non-college. a bomb dropped not all in from 40 -- obama dropped from 40 to 32. as our margin dropped by 80,000 votes since 2008. -- his margin drop by 80,000 votes since 2008. he had a lot of erosion. mitt romney had no serious plan

for talking to nonwhite voters. i visited the camp and officials. they did not know the names of the hispanic outreach. -i visited the campaign officials. they did not know the names of the hispanic outreach. when senior ron advisers said to me, this is the last time anyone will try to do this. it was almost entirely from the votes of whites. >> looking ahead, the republican party, anytime you lose, there is rethinking. i think people think the problem is more structural long terms. where is the republican party going? what will the debate to be? at the david is right. we have a congress that is more tea party.

what is the debate for the republican party looking like? the house of your candidates who are interesting. -- the house has some younger candidates or interesting, marco rubio. >> some are saying that we did not run a conservative and of candidate and others say that we went too far to the right. they are blamed severely conservative positions about romney took. some are saying that we should go this way or that way. that is the wrong way to look at it. both sides are wrong and looking at it that way. i think it is a matter of how can the things that you stand for help people? how can help people to be better off?

republicans were focused on the question of are you better off four years ago? we have any big growth, but it is getting better. we're not losing half a million jobs every month. we started waited until a sept. to get into it how to read you better off for years and now? we did not really get their. -- there. barack obama i gave an interview on mtv. he was asked -- a lot of entrepreneurs whant to start their own business, including a young latinos and african- americans. what they want to do to help young entrepreneurs? he said, i have appealed back on

and on regulations. he talked about taking life i now regulations to start pete starters. -- kickstarters. what romney do it? it never got concrete enough. in the moment, but talked about applying a principle to reduce financial regulations. to solve the problem. republicans were good at saying these are our principles, but not really dead how it would solve problems. >> there was a tweet that he would see "skyfall" this weekend with his wife and he was glad that it had nothing to do with

politics whatsoever. i have a sneaking suspicion -- chris, i think you might as well -- that the user now, i think we will talk about the inroads that republicans have made with latinos. they need to adapt in order to be competitive this year. looking at some of my chris christie down the road, republicans are going to have to face a fork in the road with a future presidential nominations between someone who is able to bridge back to the gap between partisan appeal on the tea party right and independent voters or someone who will be in the base. as the republican coalition continues to contract, it will be more difficult for someone to

overcome that divide in order to win a nomination and ticket to a general election. there are people in the republican party who probably can win both the primary and the general election. >> one more question for the panel and i will turn to the audience. the increase in liberal voters. did the talks about a number of ways in the democratic coalition might have legs and be growing -- and did it talks about a number of ways in which the haveratic dilatiocoalition migt legs and the growing. educated voters are leaning more toward democrats. i used to be the case for republicans. -- that used to be the case for republicans. we saw a marijuana legalization.

at the president of's campaign talks more openly about socialism was s. this is a growing part of the democratic coalition that? >> it is very different from what it used to being. before it was centered on blue colored lights. the stevenson in 1952 and carter in 1984, they run better among whites without a college education. gore ran four points better. 2008.bttetter in college educated whites, especially when, minorities -- women, and minorities.

obama crossed the rubicon. it took a series of positions that democrats in the past have been reluctant to take. he mobilized his new coalition. you understand it would give them more headaches with older, blue-collar whites. he moved truth legalize the dream act for students. he accepted an incredibly polarized fight on contraception for the catholic church. this was a moment where he kind of reached an understanding of who is likely to vote for you and who is not. within the people vote for democrats -- this is without a doubt the future of the democratic coalition. it consists mostly a white above the median income and minorities below it.

there were able to mobilize and half of the old coalition. half of the voters are non college white said. the projector is unmistakable. but your doctor is unmistakable for the red and blue states-the project threeory is -- projectory is unmistakable for the red and blue states. >> the passage of the tax initiative in california referendum indicates that the walls are coming down and some things from before. remember from the 1984 convention. he talked about raising taxes. that is no longer a taboo issue.

i think you'll find some political liberal stuff and social liberal. >> the racial division on this is enormous. and exit polls, 60% of voters said they wanted to repeal the health care bill. large portions of african- americans and hispanics want to maintain it. a big challenge for democrats is that it is time to help unify power and government whether it was under johnson, carter, clinton, obama, they have seen their support among whites and plunge it said the delay. the challenge of convincing a much of white americans to benefit them is still on the table. the number you need to convince -- >> one of the problems the democratic party has had is that it has not been willing to

defend government. it has always been specific. maybe obama learned something from his first term in terms of putting things into perspective. -- his victory speech had some of those elements. >> we will turn to the audience. please identify yourself. please a new you are. -- say who you are. >> ok. david's point about the homogeneity of the house. what will the country do with this monumental number of

issues? they have the potential of the extreme and destructive to our domestic economy and world economy. does that, jan 88 mean it will be impossible to get anything done? -- homogenity mean it will be impossible to get a compromise? all of you might want to comment on that. >> before the election and, we were heading for the most polarized country in -- progress in history. i think we are headed there. i have been warning people it will be harder to get something big past when congress is sworn in in january. we have so many people who do have an incentive to reach across the aisle who are leaving

after jan.. before the election, there was a lot of talk about the potential of democratic leader pelosi if democrats do not make significant gains in the house. will she step aside? it looks pretty clear that john boehner will still be the speaker. i think the democratic pickups that were made has emboldened democratic leader pelosi to stick around perhaps. how women and minorities are that is something she celebrate openly. i think the real problem is for house speaker boehner. he is between a rock and hard place. there are a lot of new members who i know lectured him when they were candidates about how

republicans went back on their pledge in 2010 to hold the line on debt and to repeal obamacare. the second was largely out of their control. and the majority of them saw the tea party as a liability. we might not have that some kind of will power going for. -- forward. >> with all due respect, it is not his choice anymore. what is different about this environment is that the bush tax rate will expire. we will revert to the rates under clinton for everyone unless president obama signed an extension. after this campaign, that would be pretty shocking. he ran explicitly but as a candidate to say that he will raise taxes on the top. unless he suddenly decides that, i didn't mean it, it does not really matter all that much what

house speaker thinks. the tax cut will expire unless obama is willing to extend it. that changes the whole dynamic. virtually all of the republicans have decided the broker norquist pledged not to raise tax rates. if the tax cuts expire at the end of the year and then in january you extended for 97% of americans, the new never voted to raise tax rates. your only cutting taxes. it is possible for something like that -- when the speaker said that yesterday, it was not really reflecting the world that he now lives in. unless the president is willing to extend the tax cuts, they will not be extended. >> i have a question for you. to what extent will there be a major -- and the republican party against the tea party?

to what extent will there be a republican movement against the tea party? a i do not know there'll be strong movement against them. there is a fear of primaries, and least in congress. i do not think the biggest fear is not the person in the other party. i think the biggest fear is from within the party of the person who will take me out. >> within your own party, that will be the obstacle. >> i do not necessarily see their money to be a mass of distancing oneself from the tea party. -- i do not necessarily see that distancing oneself from the tea party. they have some very vocal

elements. they are very conservative on immigration. i think in general, the tea party was positive for the republican party in the sense that it was eighth movement of the party itself in 2008 did not have much infrastructure to mobilize people. both bush and cheney model has really fallen apart. there is a grassroots of people or fresh sitting with all the spending. i do nothing to distance themselves from that. take a look at what the primary field look like. 2016 will not look like that. i think will be allowed much less of an appetite for someone who says i have this 9-9-9 plan and suddenly they search into the top of the polls. i think it was like somebody

that the tea party likes. >> ok. next question. >> rob. i am with an equity group. question on the size of undecided populations. a little commentary to the debates and how important they were. >> well, i mean, in the end, obama won by a little more than -- a little more than the polls anticipated. more likely he produced an electorate. whoever won, we would wake up on election day and produce a little different electorate than anticipated. that is what happened.

the electorate was more non- white than most polls anticipated. there was that. the debate had a huge impact. the first debate fundamentally changed the race and put romney back with and range. obama was able to stabilize at the end. but romney presented himself as an acceptable alternative. romney was able to walk over the threshold. in the end, he never addressed the demographic challenge. and the third debate he double down on some -- he went back on some of the language.

he talked about amnesty and deportation and basically ensured that number among hispanics. barack obama increased its share of votes among hispanics. that is a statement more about the republican party than the democratic party. >> that is not two waves. one was out of the democratic convention. that was a surge for the democrats. the second was a chance for the challenger to put himself on the stage. the feeling of the amount of those he could get -- i think people were talking about romney's momentum. he got back in the race. he got stuck at a point where he could not go any further. >> a good to this part of the room. let's go here.

>> u.s. news and world report. it seems the coalition was unable biunique elements of this election. he have the bain background. how will they try to recreate the coalition? >> great question. a year ago, i would have said poorly among bluen collar and older whites. even with paul ryan on the ticket, a 60% of seniors voted for romney. in the long run, i did those mr.

read states are problematic for democrats. -- i think those red states are problematic for democrats. look at north carolina. in north carolina or virginia, obama's numbers among blue- collar whites are unbelievably low. they are in the high-20's or 30's. in the long run, i do think there is this pattern. the sun belt will be more important than the west about. they do have the incredible ability to hang on to -- the shift will be to states that have the same social forces of rising diversity and rising education levels. >> we have a slight disagreement. obama did well among these groups in 2008. democrats do well among white

blue-collar voters in the midwest. there are union presidents and other things that give them a boost. there is a slight fracture of the automobile bailout. ohio did not look that different. i think of no bailout might have helped a bit around the edges. boy, running against and john mccain in 2008, barack obama did well among those groups in those states. he did well in iowa. he of reforms overperformed.- he it is bigger in 2012 than in 2008. >> at the performance is a little bit overstated. dig into the data.

it is not quite impressive as the polls might have suggested. i had to write a little bit. -- brag a little bi. -- bit. i was having a fierce twitter debate over the nature of ohio. model has predicted in this election and had a 49.6% chance to beat ohio in the electoral vote. the tipping state was colorado. where did romney's 47% remarks get him? 47% of the vote. >> we talk about how non-whites

are growing, particularly among latinos. unions are shrinking. for the 6% of voters were from the union households. this ticket was only 18 percent. i do think that you are right. it will be more about the sun belt than the rest. >> non college white union members. this is pretty striking. >> let's have another question. in the front. >> you spoke about the long-term trends of declining voter turnout and increased polarization and the emotionalism of voters. do you see a shift in that and the declining quality of public education? >> i think the declining

quality and quantity of civic education tells of the fact of the majority of people in the household were their parents do not vote and a large majority do not discuss politics, those are some factors that definitely impacted. i think a shift to consumerist that is a libertarian and values has contributed. -- consumeris values and libertarian values has been attributed. every new generation of media, it probably started with television and now we have the internet and iphones and facebook and all of those things that its smaller committees of

larger communities. i think those things will double-when you do not have that type of tensions we have had over the last eight years, i think those things will be more important in the long haul than any individual election. >> one interesting thing about -- the more educated voters are, they are more likely to be partisan. this idea of the middle people who are disaffected from both parties is probably not the case. >> there are a lot of polarization's. we are in an era where the party coalitions -- there is an enormous amount of politics and every possible direction. there is a book written called

"what is the matter with kansas?" a lot of upper middle class white voters are going to get higher taxes are nonetheless voting democratic. the minority communities feel unwelcome in the republican party. his politics are much more conservative than college educated whites on issues like gay marriage and abortions. they are sending this message, we do not want you here. on that point, i think the push for the voter i.d. laws in this election will be seen in retrospect as something close to the proposition in california. incredibly shortsighted with long-term consequences. whatever those republican governors and legislators thought they were doing, every

latino population in the country and thought not only are you not competing for are revoked, you do not want our vote to. the gop is not even getting up to have argument about policies of this point. there is this time and is -- tremendous identity of -- how often did go to church? there is the identity politics. our system is frozen with the two about three close as presidential elections happening. >> right here. >> janet. george washington university school of public health. there was a lot of discussion on women's issues. i am wondering if you can speak to the role of gender in the governing. we are seeing more candidates

who are successful in their elections and won a stakes -- entirely female. kelly ayote. when you have that kind of coalition and the democratic party and that remarkable picture of the congressional committee of all republican and not white men talking about contraception or ever was before the committee at the time, that is an image of perjury is exactly why republicans are having a hard time in connecting with female voters in that gender gap. >> romney did significantly

improve among white women. not only did not college white women, but also the college white women. this is the first time the democrats have lost them since 1988. >> there is also of the marriage gap. if you are a married woman, you vote different ways -- in different ways. that is another thing the republican party is facing. there is new to an era where you bought your identity rather than your interest. >> i went to iran event-i went to a run the event. -- romney event. most of them were married white couples with kids. when you go to an obama event, it is the whites, blacks,

cobbles, and kids. -- couples, kids. the challenge of governing a that the country, these two groups that are different in their priorities and cultural values, they're almost equal in their size. the republicans have been able to insulate themselves women that one america. -themselves within the one america. >> conventions of the same feeling as well. >> i do not think he will see a democratic leadership of the house ever again that does not include at least one woman and

one african-american and latino. whereas republicans, they need a lot more than double-they really need to put out a different face an image in order to compete more broadly. -- they really need to put out a different face, an image in order to compete more broadly. >> sometimes the evidence for interesting voices that do not -- >> when other dimension of this -- one other dimension of this, at the end of the day, mitt romney 120% of the total electoral votes available outside of the south. -- 20% of the total electoral

votes available outside of the south. that happened in 1992. that is the smallest share of the electoral votes. the demographic challenge is also a geographical challenges. because of these places we have more cosmopolitan and secular populations that are dead birds on the coast -- diverse on the coast. >> they have all the mountains and the farm states. that's it. >> one last question and we will rack up. >> thank you. i am an independent consultant. i want to go back to the aid groups and talk about the contrast and the complex between

the boomers and millennia ills, particularly lead in the demands for entitlements that is coming out. illenials will have to pay for this. shows that when young voters are asked if they will seat social security, only 17% say yes to that question. there is a serious belief among people that we are on and on stable fiscal path. the deficits and a spending is the issue on which they trusted republicans more than democrats. and that was a big debate. young people say that paul ryan is down and likes proximity that

will appeal to young voters. that did not pan out. maybe it will be attracted to young people who know that there needs to be a big change. i still feel like many young people have not fully woken up to it. they have decided, i will probably never see social security and medicare. it is a big problem. it does not seem like there is any good solution on the table. it is not like young voters are flocking to one party or another. i do not think i the problem -- parties have been given any incentives for young voters to go for them. they need something to win them. >> the party that talks about entitlements as one that does best among all the voters. [laughter] >> voting your culture.

>> the problem is not that they are not willing to pay for the baby boomers are. the problems of the boomers are now willing to pay for anything for the millennials. the two is generations shifting our nation is about millennials and the baby boomers. what we see are the moving in different directions in the view of the government. the baby boomers voted 60% republicans. the have grown hostile to any kind of programs and taxes and are willing only to have government fund medicare and social security and not entitlements. they become hostile on spending on the younger generation which is heavily non-white.

unless we do a better society -- a better job of getting those adverse millennials -- diverse millennials into the middle class, there is no way to pay for the programs for the baby boomers. 60% of white seniors voted for romney. these two generations are locked and loaded to collide for the next several decades for control and direction of american politics. >> on that note, let's thank our panel. [applause] >> as you might have read or heard or ready, according to "the associated press", david petraeus has resigned from the

cia after admitting to an extramarital affair. on friday, the president accepted his resignation. he demonstrated poor judgment in having the affair. president obama released a statement which we will put up on the screen for you. he said that he has provided extraordinary service for the united states for decades. by any measure, he was one of the outstanding general officers of his generation.

>> there was a mandate in yesterday's's results for us to find a way to find a solution to the challenges we face as a nation. my message is now one of confrontation, but one of conviction. in the weeks and months ahead be faced challenges and great opportunity. >> the american people want us to work together. republicans and democrats want to work together.

we want a balanced approach, especially the situation we have dealing with the huge deficit and taxes that are part of it. >> the newly elected congress start working in january. the current congress still has work to do until the end of the year which is known as the lame duck session. they will discuss the federal deficit and raising the debt ceiling. it will also talked about sequestration. follow all the floor debates starting tuesday with live coverage on c-span and on c-span 2. >> next, remarks from penn state's the university president, rodney erickson and the charges against -- he took over as president after the former president resigned.

and from the national press club, this is one hour. >> it is a picture-perfect college town. an enormously popular university, it has the largest alumni association and the country. but things were anything but happy when our guest, rodney erickson, assumed the presidency of penn state last november. the school was reeling from a child sex abuse scandal involving penn state assistant football coach, jerry sandusky. the coverage was a nonstop. joe paterno has just been fired. both men, along with others at penn state, were accused of covering the scandal to protect the penn state reputation. this was a mess back rodney erickson inherited. that message is slowly being cleaned up. sandusky is in jail, probably

for the rest of his life. has brought stability the ball program. the university has been fined. a geography professor by trade, dr. erickson has been a pen state university since -- he has served as executive vice president and provost of the university. he graduated from the university of minnesota and obtained his ph.d. in a geography from the university of washington. he is a native of wisconsin. he is the 17th president of penn state. he plans to step down in 2014. but it is time in the next few tears will be dealing with the fallout from the scandal and

restoring penn state's reputation. please welcome rodney erickson to the national press club. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you for your kind introduction as well as your flexibility in rescheduling this event given the weather challenges for the week. i appreciate your interest in penn state and higher education. a special welcome to all of the penn staters here. we need your continued engagement. thank you for joining us. thank you for bringing along the penn state cookies. according to google news, there are over 45,000 stories about penn state and sandusky. you have written them and read them and i imagine those did you

have formed an opinion about penn state and our actions over the last year. beyond the headlines, there is another reality, one that exist for penn state's 96,000 students and 44,000 full and part-time faculty staff and over 555,000 living alumni. it is a world of teaching and serviced. it is a world with a research program. hundreds of degrees offered. 24 campuses. an online world campus. a law school. 157 years of tradition. it is also a world that has continued to this ongoing controversy surrounding sandusky. the legal process continues to unfold as evidenced by the

attorney-general's further charges leveled yesterday. today i want to tell you something about my world and the realities of running an institution the size and scope of penn state while dealing with perceptions. i want to share the many wonderful activities and accomplishments of our students and faculty and staff over this agonizing year. any reasonable definition, they are newsworthy stories. i understand you may not be willing to listen to them until we show you how this year has changed us. what we learned about ourselves and what are we tried to do with that knowledge? i will speak candidly about how the last year has affected penn state and how the impact has gone beyond pennsylvania to shape policies and universities across the nation. i will share our strategies for the year ahead. to begin, let me take you back

to last year when penn state received the repugnant news that a former assistant coach had molested young boys and in some instances, on our campus. immediately, as they did with all of you, our thoughts turned to the victims of these horrific crimes. in the days that followed, we saw the removal of the senior leaders of our university and athletic program, including the popular president and iconic football coach. at the time, i was serving as executive vice president and provost. it was a position i often called the best job in higher education. my retirement was within my sights. when the board of trustees asked me to serve as president, i accepted. i knew full well that the months ahead would explore uncharted territory for our universities. many times i have been asked, why did you say yes? the answer has never changed.

i have devoted 35 years of my professional life to penn state. my children have attended penn state. i believe deeply in our mission our -- and our ability to contribute to the greater good. i knew i needed to step up and serve. penn state is a great university. it is a great university that will endure as it has always endure. it will be covering. it will continue to teach research and service. in those early weeks, i heard from penn state pose a many constituents and have received more than 5000 e-mails and letters and hundreds of phone calls from personal contacts. people were shocked, upset, concerned, disappointed, and yet supportive of the university. as the story played out in the media and in alumnae circles and in every corner of our campus,

voices that have remained silent began to speak up. dictums of drug abuse -- victims of child abuse began to write to my office. they are part of the chilling estimates, one in five girls and one in 10 boys are sexually abused by the age of 18. the majority of them will not tell anyone, even if they are asked. the letters were powerful. they express the pain, shame, and struggles these individuals have lived with for many years. for some, this was the first time they have shared their story. another has written regularly and met with some of my top administrators to collaborate on ways to help victims of child sexual abuse. i find these stories to be

heartbreaking, but also find hope in them. they entrust their stories to us. they were looking to us to help topple what is an academic issue. they still believe in our capabilities -- an epidemic issue. they still believe in our capabilities. there issue became our issue. we are taking on this nationwide problem of child abuse. we resolve to do it by doing what we do best and that is right teaching, research, and service. beyond that, we have something more powerful -- the student body. within the first days of the crisis, it became clear that the students were not going to wait for us to lead them. they're going forward with unity and a constructive energy that has been inspiring to all of us. here are two quick examples.

by the end of the first week, student leaders have organized a candlelight vigil on the whole lot to show support for the victims of child sexual abuse. thousands of penn state students and community members and joined together in the stillness of the cold, dark night to remind others that at the core of the issue we face, where children have been greatly harmed. the following week, graduating students helped mobilize the penn state community with the goal of raising awareness and funds for combating child abuse. working with a tight timeline, laura and stewart art is the first blue out the support of abuse awareness. this year was the second annual blew ouue out.

they raised of thousands of dollars. please stand for a moment so we can recognize you. [applause] thank you. penn state alumni have also showed their support, raising nearly $550,000 for the largest anti violence organization. those are a few examples of the acts that were organized and carried out for penn staters. once more, students continue to respond to the crisis will still do the things that penn students have always loved to do -- study and learn, participate in clubs and activities, make friends, and look forward to the future

and cheer on the athletes, including a football team whose performance on and off the field has made us proud. as administrators, we tried to balance the need to move ahead with the need to reflect on and correct the underlying issues that brought us to the crisis in the first place. the testes began by asking a former fbi director to lead an independent investigation -- it began by asking a former fbi director to lead an independent investigation. we have already implemented more than one-third of his recommendations. we remain committed to this progress because we believe it is making as a better and stronger university in. we are committed to the fight against child abuse. central to this effort is a newly established center for the protection of children based

at the penn state hershey hospital and our ongoing partnership with the pennsylvania coalition against rate. earlier this week, we completed the first penn state national conference on a child sexual abuse. this form brought together leaders and experts from law- enforcement and pediatric medicine and education. we from the penn state network for child protection and well being comprised of 35 faculty members with interdisciplinary expertise. of the aim is to accelerate the pace of discovery by linking research and practice and to build the network with additional researchers, practitioners, and teachers. the director of the social science research institute and one of the course organizers of the network is here with us today. can you please stand up and be recognized? thank you. [applause]

we also made a pledge to educate our university community about ethics. it is one thing to know the rules and regulations and policies, but it is another thing to create a culture where everyone wants to do the right thing the first time, every time. through training and awareness and efforts, we are trying to help people understand the how, when, and why are reporting. i assure you that 10 state takes this commitment seriously. -- penn state takes this commitment seriously. like most universities, penn state has dozens of compliance professionals. they are responsible for making sure that research funds are properly used. the monitor our financial reporting and crime reporting and administer many more regulations related to the help

and welfare of those on our campuses, including our patience. we have discovered that despite our staffing, there were gaps in the system. we let to the central compliance office or efforts can be coordinated. we want to ensure the penn state pose a overall compliance with the act. what this new position, our goal is not only to ensure that penn state meets the requirements set forth by federal law and the u.s. department of agitation, but to become a leader in campus security and compliance. with oversight by senator george mitchell, does it help put the question of athletic integrity to rest, even as we implement changes. there is a great deal that is right about athletics at penn state.

are rescinded athletes graduate well above their peers and nationwide -- our athletes graduate well above their peers and nationwide. the football team's rate is 91%. this level of achievement spans all of our sports teams and academic majors and ethnicity. notably, african-american athletes are denied a prison record rate. that is 25 points higher than the national average. other universities are closely watching penn state's actions so they can strengthen their policies and lighted it rest at their institutions and make their campuses safer -- my gate at their institutions and make their campuses safer. the reporting is not only a law.ral duty, but the

our work continues. that brings us to today on the brink of the one-year anniversary of civil lawsuits and perjury files. we can expect more fall out to come. over the last year, we have learned much about ourselves and our values and our vision. we're still working through some difficult issues. the question remains -- where do we go from here? the answer can be found by returning to penn state's core mission -- teaching, research, and service. our students are our top priority. i repeat, our students are our top priority. they are doing great things. for example, are journalism students captured the

-- engineering students took top honors in a car competition. others are racing to get a vehicle to the moon. neurology students won the national weather forecasting challenge -- meterology students won the national weather forecasting challenge. in addition and, we welcome one of the largest and most academically accomplish crosses in our history after receiving a record 123,000 total applications for admission. these excesses define who we are and where we are going. we need to support those students and faculty members because they depend on us. our alumni and the people of the commonwealth of pennsylvania the

kind of us for educational opportunities and competitiveness -- depend on us for educational opportunities and competitiveness. allow me to put a few faces on the penn state community in >> they are student leaders working to fight pediatric cancer. since 1977, it has raised more than a $9 million for the fund at the penn state hershey medical center. we brought along dvd's of the documentary. please, pick up a copy on your way out. it is an incredible story. thank you, will and kat.

dr. region will dr. katz the bowen please stand? -- will dr. cathy please stand? she runs a volunteer service to help in come- a little people get their taxes done for free. it sold the elderly, working families, and students and least $133,000. the program's total economic impact was nearly $1 million. thank you, cathy. i want to introduce a doctor -- two doctors from our college of agricultural sciences. collaboration discovered what could be a promising treatment for leukemia. the compound they developed targeted and killed leukemia stem cells without relapse.

their team is working to move this compound into clinical trials us as possible. thank you. these are penn staters who are leading us into the future. they are the reason that i am here today. there are a few of the penn staters not allow anything to stop them from changing our world of the better. i want to spend a few minutes looking ahead. we are facing a crisis in higher education that is perhaps the worst ever in our nation's history. our young people from middle- class and working families -- from working families have depended on access to affordable community colleges and state universities. they are at risk of losing access throughout the nation

state governments are cutting back on the nation -- profanation state governments are cutting back -- profanation states are cutting back. a report by the national science board released last month found that state support for public universities fell 20% between 2002 and 2010. there shortfall has put public research and percy's in peril. the declining investment in universities has made this a lost decade for funding and it has happened while universities have increased enrollment by 320,000 students a nationally. this has caused many to question the future of public higher education and the implications for society. this is not a chicken little warning.

i am aware that we need to adapt to today's economic reality. state legislators and governors have tough choices. their ability to provide internment services had teas which it has decreased while the public need has increased. we know the difficulty of asking hard-pressed americans to pay higher taxes to subsidize public university tuition to enable lower-and middle income-families to afford to send their children to family -- college. we must address the reality that our nation's public universities are charging tuition even in state students find out of their reach. everyone in leadership at public universities can and must do a better job at reducing costs and improving education. more belt-tightening must occur on university campuses.

every member of the university committee to communities shares the responsibility. we know this. we are turning over every stone to find savings while improving learning outcomes. we had the lowest tuition increase in 45 years. we have trimmed budgets, cut programs, and consolidated. you cannot do 21st century science in labs left over from the days of sputnik were before. if we study what is average, we will remain average. our students in our nation deserve better. we must do better if we intend to compete in the global economy. last year, i traveled to china to villages several universities. at the national investment in these universities is something to behold. over the last 30 years, china has had a 58-fold increase in

spending on education, health, and social investments. according to a report from the center of american progress, by two dozen 30 -- 2030, china will have more graduates in the entire u.s. work force. these are the facts that drive the decisions we must make as we position penn state to succeed in the future. part of that planning will require getting out and staying out and for the information technology revolution which has been among the drivers of educational change in the last 15 to 20 years. it has been like a runaway train. one response to the higher education funding crisis has been increased appeals, especially from legislators and business leaders for higher

education to increase online education. the hope is that more students will receive college degrees faster and at less cost. research shows that done appropriately, the application of technologies can improve learning outcomes and decrease the cost of delivering that education. they say things have proven elusive. massive, open online courses are testing the market. universities now offer these class's prompting airlines like college may never be the same. stay tuned. it could be a wild ride. good ideas take time than research to explore. penn state operates a world campus with nearly 12,000 students enrolled in fully on line programs. our model has been honored by the sloan contortion as the top

online program for 2012. it continues to be bald. in the coming year, we must prepare consent for the next generation of leadership. i will be retiring by june 2014. the board of trustees is about to begin the search for the next president. it is incumbent to lay the groundwork for my successor. we look forward to an invigorating progress -- process with outstanding progress. penn state continues to move forward. the large public plan grant university. yes, a university that continues to believe that grid at the the next and great athletics can not only coexist but can be reinforcing components of a university is to cushion. i hope you can better understand

why i am proud to be president of our university. it is because of all were students, faculty, staff, and thousands of penn state alumni and friends. our difficulties are not over. as areate's beth -- best still ahead. thank you for the opportunity to share these thoughts with you. thank you. >> penn state officials were aware of the concealed abuse of children. you worked alongside the former president for 16 years. do you believe he was aware of and concealed the abuse of children? >> i am not going to comment on that because it is an ongoing

investigation. it is the subject of continuing litigation. all of us at penn state have been deeply hurt, deeply moved by everything that has transpired. yesterday was no exception, but we have to trust the courts now to educate these matters and allow our legal process to run its course. >> the penn state board of trustees have said that tim curley and gary schultz will get their due process. why wasn't the president not given the same consideration to attack in november of last year,the board may leadership

changes. their rationale for those changes had been that president -- the president had not fulfilled his leadership obligations in subsequent meetings with the media. they indicated that that was primarily around the issues of not keeping the board informed about developments that had occurred over a longer period of time as well as making statements that were not in concert with the board's wishes in early november. >> where are the penn state board of trustees meeting minutes from november 9, 2011? what are they the only meant that have not been publicly released after repair request any legal requirement? >> i was not there. i cannot answer that with

completeness. i have been told that there are no menace that were taken at the meeting. >> what is the overlap in personnel between the second mile board members, employees, and donors and that the penn state donor trusties? where were the conflicts of interest not identified in the report? >> we may be able to give you that information. i do not have it. i was never involved in any way with the second mile in their fundraisers or any other official activities. i do not have a working knowledge of who would happen back-and-forth wit. >> there have been reported

contradictory quotations from members of your board of trustees as to the purpose of the investigation and report. can you explain how the scope of work was in line for free and the real purpose for his investigation and report? >> judge freed was given a broad mandate to look at the sandusky situation. to try to discern what had happened, what had gone wrong. beyond that, to make recommendations on how the university could improve its policies, practices, and operations. as i indicated in my remarks judge gfree identified 199 recommendations. many of these were suggested by the more than 400 individuals

that judge free;s team interviewed over the course of several months. we have focused as a demonstration on putting as many of those recommendations and the idea is to put the fall into place. the board has responded very quickly to the recommendations. it has taken a number of factions since last november, including changing of the leadership, revising the committee structure, creating six committees that are responsive to the current functions and its of the university. there is a tremendous amount of work that is going on. i have appointed three of my senior leaders to implement -- oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the free report. we have made progress.

we continue to which the goal of having all of the recommendations completed by the end of calendar 2013. >> all meetings are recorded. why was the new member for july was the november meeting an exception? >> i was not there. i have no knowledge of that. >> have you asked? >> plenty of other people have asked. i was simply told -- yes. i asked and i was told there were no men in meetings. >> did you ask why? >>yes, i asked why, but the actions that were taken there i think were the subject of that board meeting. i cannot respond to questions that i was not there or to not have intermission about. >> how do you address the

concerns of alumni that felt the penn state giving into the ncaa sanctions without dispute these into the story line that penn state had a culture where football was put above all else a? >> excepting the n.c.a.a. consent decree was the most difficult question -- decision i have ever have to make in 40 years of a professional career. i laid out the reasons in public y n made those decisions, but the alternatives, which was notable years of the death penalties. i felt was too devastating for the university, the community, and i thought that even though the sanctions that for imposed were unprecedented, and

crippling in many ways, it was the better alternative and allowed us to move forward as a university. i made that decision. i stand by that decision. >> did you find -- signed a retirement package and gave him access to the penn state campus? >> no, i did not. the only role i played was as pro worst. -- provost. in 1999 when jerry sandusky was awarded a emeritus status, the policy was a title. the concerns that i expressed about that in the mail -- and in e-mail produced in the free will court was only concerned with the president's that might set

as someone at the assistant professor rank who would be given american status. i played no role in any of the kinds of matters related to what mr. sandusky was entitled to as an emeritus member of the faculty and staff. i had no role in that whatsoever nor did i see the document. >> with the benefit of hindsight, after the 1998 investigation was completed, what should penn state have done differently regarding his access to psu facilities? >> there should have been additional follow-up. we know that that is why we have done so much over the last year to put the kind of policies into place we have.

we have secured facilities in new ways. we have changed the ways in which retired faculty and staff have access to our facilities. we have implemented background checking for our own faculty and staff as well as people who are volunteers who are coming onto campus for many reasons. we have strengthened our mandatory reporting laws, our procedures related to the query act. and within our police services, we have strength in all those processes and procedures that in the future we believe will make it unlikely that this sort of thing could happen again. >> in light of the transparency you have promised, will you release a copy of the $6.50

million contract that authorize the free group to investigate? >> that is a decision for the board. that is something that should be directed to the chair of the board. >> four penn state trustees were named in the report for having prior knowledge of the sandusky grand jury investigation and doing nothing about it. only one of the trusties has resigned wh. what are the others holding their trustee position to attack that would be a question that would be best directed to them the board has made very significant changes over the course of the past year. many of the changes they have made to their structure. the oversight of the board has

increased dramatically. there is new leadership. i have regular contact on a daily basis with the leadership of our board. the other members of our board will empower to to reach into the ranks of my senior staff to request information to raise issues. it is a different kind of oversight environment that will serve the university well. >> many of the pitfalls of the previous administration and the board of administration was poor at the time. how have the free secommendations and lesson learned in prove that process? >> i addressed much of that in my last response. it has been a year of more

frequent meetings, much-enhanced interactions. the board is aware and well- briefed of any major issues that are taking place at the university. one of the objectives in my administration has been to create more interaction among my senior leadership team. so whenever issues come before the university we discuss them in a broad group of about 18 members that make up part of my presidentialth council mye free report concluded that spaniard, and others covered of their knowledge of the child abuse to protect the reputation of the penn state football program. on what grounds was his

conclusion reached? is it fair and accurate? >> that is a question that is best directed to louie free. and the legal process that is going on that is continuing in the investigation that is continuing will lead to some conclusions with that -- perspective that question. >> did the university consult with legal counsel to determine -- to determine how excepting the conclusion would be a way to accept guilt? >> the university thought about that. the free report was commissioned by the board of christie's. the board of trustees accepted that report. that does not necessarily mean that members of the board of

trustees agree with every aspect of the report. we agree with the recommendations of the report and are moving ahead to implement those recommendations. >> who suggested the use of a death penalty as a penalty handed down from the ncaa? you or mark emirate? >> mark. >> what could have been uncovered in an ncaa instigation that would have netted a worse result than the current sections? >> i do not know what kind of other issues there may have been. i cannot imagine a worse outcome than the death sentence, the death penalty, and multiple years of that. the death penalty would have not

erased a tremendous source of revenue that helps to support all of our intercollegiate programs but we would have had years of continuing cost given all of the contracts and all of the commitments that we had related to football. the loss of television revenue would be very substantial as well. the impacts on the local community, which over the course of seven games are huge in a small community like ours. the sanctions we accepted and present -- as severe as they were still allowed us to continue to play. i have to say how proud i am of our football players.

they have stuck with us. they have for the most part stayed with coach o'brien and the staff. they have played their hearts out during the fall. they will continue to. they have acted like the true champions that they are. i do not care what their won- loss record is. they are champions. they reflect how we will get through this process. we will come out stronger in end. >> who proposed the final version of the sanctions? penn state or the n.c.a.a.? >> we had little that we were able to negotiate in terms of the n.c.a.a. sanctions. we were not in a negotiating position. the n.c.a.a. made that clear to

us. >> did you break the trusties about the negotiations with mark? >> yes, i brought the executive committee of the board into the loop early on that week. i kept them informed through the process, including sunday night at the latest, before i put pin to paper to sign it. >> what role could the legacy of joe paterno play and penn state's future? is there a opportunity where his legacy will be restored? >> this is an issue that has great importance for the university community. joe paterno was a larger-than- life figure for much of his 61 years at penn state.

he left an important legacy for the university. in making decisions that i did, i thought it was most appropriate that we leave the paternal name on the library, given the contributions to education that coach paterno and his family has made over these years. that is a thing tribute to have that name on the library. as to how the university would entertain other ideas, i think that is something that we will have to give time. there are differing opinions about this. i hope at some point we will be able to address that with the sense of unity and reflection.

>> how do you think alumni have reacted to the steps the university has taken to limit the damage of their alma maters? er? >> there are different thought out there. it has been difficult to move the positive forward when we have had what seems like a continuing stream of bad news that has come out over the course of the last year. we are moving forward with the individuals such as i introduced you to today. we need to continue to do that. we need to talk about the

tremendously positive things are happening at penn state day in and day out our mission has not changed one iota of the last year. we are still about teaching research and service. we are still the great educational institution that we were one year ago. we are still the place that corporate america most likes to come. to hire graduates. all of these things are there. all of them are still in place. we cannot forget that even as we deal with some of the issues that continue to a rise. >> what was the reaction on campus yesterday to the charges? >> i had relatively few opportunities to to interact iwth individuals -- with individuals during the day in an informal discussion --

discussion atmosphere. there was emotion. there was a lot of concern. he was well-regarded among the student body and among the faculty. we will have a better opportunity to assess that over the next few days in the weeks ahead. >> given the new charges, are you being investigated in -- for any role in the sandusky scandal? >> not that i am aware of. >> how is settlement negotiation going? why hasn't the university been forthcoming about how much it is paying settlements negotiators? >> feinberg and mike rosen were brought on as intermediaries. they do not represent the

university. they do not represent victims. they are simply there to try to engage in discussion and hopefully develop a process that both the university, our insurance carriers, and the plaintiffs can get together around. we would like to settle all of the cases if it were possible. even some number of them if we could sell them without taking the victim's the roof -- the victims through a litigation process would be preferable. for everyone. they will continue to try to move this process forward over the next few weeks, over the next few months, and hopefully it will help us bring some resolution to the matter in a timely and just manner. >> what is the status of the

university's fight with one of its insurers over a general liability coverage? >> the issues there is about whether they will provide coverage. but me give you background -- like other organizations of our size and scope of our pair universities, we have multiple stocks of coverage. the layer from the -- the layer that you are referring to is the first layer in coverage that we have had for about 60 years. none of the subsequent coverage is dependent upon what happens on that later. >> what would be the university's response if they are found not guilty of the charges of endangering the welfare of children and billion to report cha diffuse?

isn't that what the sanctions are largely based on? >> will have to wait and see how all of this turns out. i am not going to speculate on those kinds of what-if situation spam we have a couple more minutes. i have a few announcements to make. i would like to remind you of our upcoming luncheon on november 12. we have the lead singer of the who discussing a teen and young adult cancer program. on november 16 -- the chief of naval operations will speak. i like to present our guests with a traditional national press club coffee mug. it makes all of those beverages tastes better. i would like to add -- what is your one major goal you would like to accomplish before you

leave in two years? >> my major goal is to set the stage for my successor so that she or he can come in and take the reins of this great university, continuing to drive us forward to do wonderful things, and my goal is to make that happen and continue to serve our faculty, staff , students, and alumni in the best possible way during the time i have left. thank you. >> how about a round of applause for our speaker? >> thank you for coming. i would also like to thank the national press club staff including its journalism

institute and broadcast center for organizing the event. you can find more information about the national press club on our web site. if you like to get a copy of today's program, check out our website at www.press.org. thank you. we are adjourned. >> remarks from president obama and speaker of the house john boehner on the u.s. economy and federal deficit. the president said he has invited congressional leaders to the white house to discuss the deficit. he warned about the affects of the fiscal cliff. they take effect in january if congress does not act. speaker boehner held his second news conference since the election and since a report by

the congressional budget office says that ending the tax cuts would hurt the economy. tonight at 8:00 p.m. here on c- span. billy house is the house leadership reporter for the national journal. house speaker john boehner has appeared before the cameras every day since the election on tuesday. what is he saying about the coming work on fiscal issues? >> he is trying to set a tone of all, showing leadership. he has not offered any thing he has not been offering for several months in terms of taxes and some other items. he is trying to show they are willing to talk. president obama responded saying -- yes, let us talk. >> some news reports are characterizing speaker banner's

comments as a softening before the elections. has he changed positions? >> it is the same position. the higher income rates -- will not go along with any reductions. the issue is whether or not to extend the rights that were put in rates under president bush. a lower rate expire in a year. republican say all of them need to be extended and lease for one year as they work on more comprehensive efforts to take on this fiscal cliff. >> has the speaker clued us and on how he envisioned negotiations on getting past the fiscal cliff? >> he has said the house would pass a bill that would address those things. they would make cuts other than those that are called into the sequester reductions.

some of military cuts with cuts elsewhere. the republican house ideas are deeper cuts into social safety net programs. delong not apply with democrats in the house or in the senate. >> what are they looking for? >>they would say a more balanced approach. let's at least increase the tax rates. let them increase on the higher income -- the 2% of whoopees of americans. that would go a long way of helping does not happen to find other cuts and items to get around this big hit of spending cuts and tax increases. >> what is the timetable for action? >> the so-called sequester cut head on january 2. if not dealt with. when they would hit agencies

could trickle into the year. the bush tax cuts and at the end of the year. around the corner is another problem -- the impending debt ceiling -- our nation's ability to continue borrowing. it has reached its capper. -- cap. that will lead to some more battles about what cuts should be made to let that happen. >> what is more likely -- a final agreement on these outstanding issues or some kind of short-term band-aid to get past the end of the year? >> that is exactly what we have. a bandit, a bridge, in many bargain. there is talk about traps in return for kicking and down the road six deaths -- six months. maybe john bennett can get his troops on board with cutting half they are called for.

some conservatives, including jim jordan says no, we want to do the cuts. we are not interested in taking them down the road. if we do that, we come out have been done nothing but increase spending. we have no cuts to show. there will be battles of for that. in the and they will do a many bargain that will get us into next year. >> you mentioned that the president invitation to congressional leaders to talk about this. what will the president helped to achieve? >> he will say -- hey, -- he will repeat what he said today. we have the mandate on taxes. we won the election. speaker brainer will say -- we still have more than two dozen seats in this house. they will all say -- this is

something that goes beyond partisan politics. it goes to very critical and the clock is ticking issues that need to be addressed or this country could face devastating results. >> bill house writes for national journal. he is the house leadership reporter. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> the chinese president addresses members of his communist party of china during the opening of the national -- national congress. it is his last major address. he boasted about the achievements of the growing chinese economy while a warning against corruption in the political unrest for parties. this is one hour and a half.

c-s[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> on behalf of the committee, we would like to deliver a report from the 18th international congress of the communist international party of china. copies have been issued to you. i will outline its main point instead of presenting the whole text. national. congress is one of great and portents -- and for tens the 18th congress is one of great importance.

the underlying theme of congress is to hold high the great center of socialism with chinese characteristics [indiscernible] for the times are difficult days on the path of socialism with chinese characteristics. and strive to complete the future in all respects. i will address -- at this moment it tookaddress you, th over 90 years of struggle. a party has let the people of

all ethnic groups in turning the poor to become prosperous. [indiscernible] we are all the more broader to recognize the achievements of the people. we are the more aware of the historic responsibilities. our party is conditione -- is

faced with unprecedented opportunities for development as well as risk unknown before. the party must keep in mind the trust of the people. we must aim higher and a carter and continue to push for development in a scientific way to promote social harmony and improve people's lives. first, our work in the past five years in the basic experience we have gained in the past decade. of the past five years - [indiscernible]

we have overcome difficulties and risks and achieved new successes in building a modestly prosperous society. we have made new and major achievements and all fields of our work. the economy has developed rapidly. major progress has been registered in reform and opening up. living standards have increased. the strides have been made in developing markets and in the legal system. development of the cultural system have enriched. progress has been made in social change. the state has been enriched in national defense.

foreign affairs have been strengthened. over the past five years, all progress has been made. the progress has been registered [indiscernible] multiple results have been achieved concerning the parties theoretically. they made -- significant achievements have been made in development. major programs have been made in conducting reform and innovation in party building while intraparty democracy has been expanded. major progress has been made in straddling the ranks of party officials and unqualified professionals. they have incurred party members and organizations to excel in their work.

community-level party organizations have transitioned and new progress has been made in improving party conduct. to -- we must be aware that there is much room for improvement. there are difficulties and problems. uncoordinated developments remain a big problem. many systemic barriers stand in the way of development in a scientific way. this is an urban and rural areas. so our income disparities. party organizations are weak. some turn to corruption. the fight against corruption remains a challenge for us.

we must take these difficulties seriously. we must work harder to resolve them. our work in the past five years as an important part of our endeavor to be a prosperous society. during these 10 years, we have made the most of important strategic opportunities. we have met successfully challenges. we have brought china to a new stage of development. over the past decade, we have achieved new historic success. we have created a press various

-- prosperous society in all respects. continuous economic developments have increased social stability. we have worked hard to ensure an increase in people's well-being than ever before. all of this is widely- recognized. the successes are attributed to the guidance of the parties theory and experiences. they have been achieved on the foundation laid in 1949. [indiscernible] here, on behalf of the committee of the comments party of china,

-- communist party of china, i wish to express our thanks to the people of all ethnic groups in china and people from all walks of life who are compatriots in the various regions. and to our foreign friends who support china's modern modernization. the most important achievement in our endeavors in the past 10 years is that we have perform scientific development. we have by reynolds -- followed previous theory.

[indiscernible] we are building socialism using chinese characteristics. the scientific outlook on development was created by integrating marxism with the reality of contemporary china and with the underlying filters -- features of our time. it embodies the methodology for development. this provides scientific answers to the questions for the kind of development china should achieve and how the country should achieve is to represent a new level of our understanding of socialism with chinese characteristics. the scientific outlet -- our

development is the latest achievements in developing the levl of socialism. it is a powerful theoretical weapon. together with these theories and the important thoughts wer represent is the guidance the party must adhere to for a long time. as we advance for the future, by applying the scientific outlook on developments, it is of the major immediate significant and far-reaching significance. we much -- we must apply it throughout the culture of modernization and to every aspect of the party. the whole party must more purposefully made promoting economic and social development

the top priority in applying the scientific outlook on developments and more purposefully take people first as the core requirements to pirelli applying these scientific developments and a more purposefully make pursuing a comprehensive, balance, and sustainable development the basic requirements for applying the scientific element for development. seeking truth from facts. keeping a with the times. these are the salient features of the scientific outlook. there is no into practice. the whole party much engaged in

practices and make changes in the innovation. we must respond to the culture of times, follow the aspirations of the people, and explore and master of the loss of socialism with chinese characteristics. we must ensure that the party always will work hard and china will work toward development. we will open up a bright future for developing socialism with chinese characteristics. [indiscernible] achieving new victories for chinese characteristics. the issue of what have we take is of vital importance for the survival of the future of china and the destiny of the chinese

nations and the well-being of the people. exploring a path to national renewal in china that will economically and culturally so backward is an arduous task. over the past 90 or more years, relying firmly on the people in adapting the basic principles of marxism to china's conditions and the trend of the times, our party has pursued its own course. it has endured hardships and achieved great success in revolution, development, and reform and created and developed socialism with chinese characteristics that changed the future and destiny of the chinese people and nation. the party's first generation led

the whole party and the people of all ethnic groups in china in completing the new democratic revolution, caring out socialist transformation, and establishing the basic system of socialism by accomplishing the most profound and the greatest social transformation in china's history. can this create a fundamental system of foundation for progress in contemporary china? in the course of socialist development, the party has created theories to make successes despite setbacks it went through. it provided experience as well as a basis for launching the great initiative, building socialism with chinese characteristics in the new historical period. the party;s second generation of

leadership with the whole party and the people of all ethnic groups in china in the conducting a review of china's experiences and building socialism positive and negative. on this basis, we made the decision to shift the pope this -- focus to pursue the policy of reform and opening up t. we established the party's basic lines for a primary stage of socialism. it called for building socialism with chinese characteristics and providing scientific answers to basic questions. this was successfully launched. the party's third generation let the the people in the party.

standing the test posed by a complex developments in major setbacks in world socialism that of tells based on china's the new reality, there reaffirmed the basic program and the basic drum. the sector reform and developed a plan work for achieving this goal. developing a socialist market economy, they reaffirmed the basic economic system and income distribution in socialism. there is a great new undertaking a party building, thus a dancing

socialism with chinese characteristics into the 20% during. the party central committee -- chinese characteristics into the 21st century. they have emphasized the need to put people first. we have called for building a harmonious socialist society. we have adopted the implementing steps for developing the cause of socialism with chinese characteristics. work to build the how marya's world and strengthen the party's capacity -- harmonious world and strengthen the party's capacity.

all the high degree banner of socialism with chinese characteristics. the path of socialism with chinese characteristics, the system of social characteristics is the sum of accomplishments made by the party and the people over the past 90 + years. we must cherished these accomplishments and continue to enrich them. [applause] in building socialism with chinese characteristics, we base ourselves on the basic reality is that china is in its primary stage of socialism. our overall approach is to

promote economic, social, and ecological progress. the general task is to achieve modernization in the great renewal of the chinese nation. it is a long-term arduous task with historic importance. we must be prepared to carry out the great struggle with many new historical features. we must adhere to socialism with chinese characteristics. we must develop it as required by the times and in rich in both practice and in theory. we need to keep up with the times. to achieve new victory for socialism with the chinese characteristics under these historic conditions, we should have a firm grasp of the basic requirements in making sure conventions and the people of all ethnic groups in china, we must maintain the people's position in the country.

we must develop a productive forces and rserve and safegaurud social justice. we must strive for common prosperity and promote social harmony. we must pursue peaceful developments. we must uphold the leadership of the party. we must be soberly aware that china is still in the primary stage of socialism and will remain so. this basic condition of china has not changed, nor has the principal problem in our society. we need to meet the cultural needs of the people.

china is the largest developing country in the world. we must under any circumstances paramount the reality that china remains in the primary stage of socialism and is ourselves in this reality in pursuing all of our endeavors in development. -- we must adhere to the central task of economic development and the cardinal principles in the policy of reform and with the chinese characteristics. we should not look down upon ourselves. as long as we remain true to our ideals, reaffirm our convictions, or relax our

efforts to act, we will complete the building of a prosperous society when the communist party of china celebrates -- and turned and ran into a prosperous, -- and turn to china into a prosperous, harmonious republic of china. our party should have every confidence in our theories and in our task. [applause] third, but completing of a modern society in a modern way.

china remains in an important period in its development. we need to have the correct understanding of the changing nature and condition of this period. we must respond with fairness in terms of challenges. -- coherentness in terms of challenges. [applause] based on china's times and social economic development, we must work hard to meet the requirements while working to build a moderately appropriate society. our main goal -- the economy

should maintain the same development. progress should be made in changing the growth and not the model. it should be more balanced and sustainable. people's democracy, the country's power should increase significantly. major progress should be made in an environmentally friendly society. in all respects, it must have the political courage and vision for reform in key sectors. there are efforts to pursue

development in a scientific way. we should set up a scientific and effective framework of the system to ensure all sectors are fully functioning. [applause] completing a modern and prosperous society in all this? by 2020 is an arduous tax. all comments in the party must work minded late to reach this goal. -- all comrades in the party must work together to reach this goal. we should encourage good conditions in pursuing modernizations.

[applause] fourth, the seller in the improvement of the social market economy -- accelerating the an improvement of the social market economy. it is vital to national renewal and also keep addressing all of the problems we have in china. only by promoting sustained and sound economic development can be late a solid foundation for that nation's prosperity and strength. improving the people oppose the well-being and ensuring social harmony and stability, we must being and's well- ensuring social harmony and stability. [applause] in contemporary china, pursuit

of development in itfifth scientific way -- a scientific way as the underlying guideline in accelerating the change of the growth models is a major task and a strategic chess we have made to promote the china policy over all developments in response to change as in economic and international developments. we should speed up the creation of new growth model and ensure it is based on improved quality and performance. there is new vigor for development. innovation driven development and establish a new system for developing modern industries and creating a new and favorable conditions for an open economy. taking these steps so we can sustain a long-term developments.

we should keep to the path of advancing i.t. and organization and modernization and interaction between inflation and urbanization and organization. -- cooperation. we need to focus on those task. first, economic structural reform across the board. deepening reform is crucial for accelerating the change of the growth model. the underlying issue we face in economical out structure reform is how to strike a balance between the role of the government and that of the market. we should follow more closely

the rules of the market and better play the role of the government in which it consolidates and develops the public sector of the economy and allows public ownership to take that risk and invest more capital in major industries that comprise the lifeline of the economy and its vital national security. the vitality of the state sector and its capacity to leverage and a cool economy. at the same time, we will encourage and guide the nonpublic sector and ensure that economic entities and all forms of ownership have equal access to sectors of production and in accordance of a lot to compete on a level playing field and a protected by the law as it cools. we should improve the modern market system and accelerate the reform on the fiscal and

taxation systems. we need to improve provisions and promote innovation and ensure financial stability. second, implement a strategy of innovation driven development and scientific and technological support for raising the productive forces to boost national strength. we must give it top priority. we should follow a path to make innovation with the chinese features and take steps to promote innovation to catch up with global advances. we should increase our capacity to make -- for making innovation on the basis of the absorbing overseas science and technology. but greater emphasis on collaboration. we should reform the system in science and technology that speed up the developments of national innovation system.

enterprises play a leading role. the market points the way in enterprises and research institutes to work together. we should improve the knowledge base will important science and technology projects will implement the strategy concerning intellectual property rights. third, carry out a strategic adjustment of economic structures. this is a major goal of accelerating the change of the growth the model. of our major structural carriers to sustain doug development. promote advanced development and advancing organization. which are firmly maintain the strategic road -- we should firmly maintain the strategic focus and speed of the establishment of the long term

mechanism for meeting the consumer demand and expanding the domestic market. on thes focus economy. we should adopt policies that better facilitates the development of the economy. we should promote the sound growth of strategic and emerging industries and advanced the manufacturing industries. develop a service sector, especially modern service industries. we should continue to have a master strategies are resembled an element and fully leverage the comparative advantages which should increase support for old revolutionary areas and border areas and poor areas. [applause] four, and the great urban and

rural development. resolving issues related to agriculture is a number one priority in the party in integrating urban air rural development -- and rural develop them. we should promote to their common prosperity. it will benefit farmers and encourage the population to participate in modernization and on an equal footing. we should speed up the developing a modern agriculture and raise overall production capacity of our culture and ensure food security and up of supplies in china. we should work hard to carry out programs to improve working and

living conditions. we should uphold and improve the basic systems of up gradations and establish new types of systems for agriculture operations that will establish commercialized and speed up improvements for promoting integrated with the balance between urban and rural areas to promote agricultural and urban areas and to support the role of development and benefit each other. [applause] fifth, promote all around improvement to china. and response to new developments in economic globalization, it must implement a strategy and improved the open economy so it promotes a mutual benefits and

this diversified balance and is secure and efficient. we should move faster the way that the economy grows and make china's open economy better structured and expand to yield greater returns. which make innovation and the tactical importance to exports and imports. make the full use of our advantage his position to bring capital and make better use of such investments. we should encourage chinese companies to expand overseas at a faster pace. we should become better able to take economic risk. we must affirm confidence and winning the tough battle of this economic structure and accelerating the change of the growth model to increase the

vitality of china. [applause] sixth, the socialist path of making political advance and promoting reform of the structure. haspeople's democracy always been held high. its political structure is an important part. we must continue to make both active and prudence efforts to carry out the political structure and make people pose a democracy more extensive. we must ensure the unity of the party. to guarantee the position of the people of the country and enhancing the vitality of the

party and country and keeping people motivated. we should extend a socialist democracy based on the role of law and promote a socialist political programs. replace greater emphasis on improving the way that the party exercises leadership and the government to make sure it leaves the people at an impressive guy running the country. but versify to ensure that democratic elections is in the making and in accordance with the law. it but greater scope to the rule of law plays and social management. coupled civility and authority of the country's legal system and make sure the people enjoy

freedom. we should play high importance to the strength of the socialist political system. to zero promote structure, we need to concentrate on the following -- to promote structure, we need to concentrate on the following. we should support progress [indiscernible] and strengthening organizations and coordination of legislator worked and their oversight of people's governance. particularly those elected on

the front lines -- should be reduced. opposition be established -- offices should be established. promote institutional development. this should be carried out as well as specific problems that are in the people's immediate interest. the chinese people should serve as a major channel for conducting this democracy into a

system of political and democratic oversight and it's a liberation and to deliver a better job in coordinating relations and making proposals in the over all country's interest. the conduct intensive consultations a special issues with those who work on these issues. third, increase in the committee level democracy. we should improve communities under the leadership of community organizations. we should broaden the scope and ensure that the people have more comfortable democratic rights. this will improve the democratic

system and public institutions and workers and employees congress. it will protect workers and employees. community level organizations should get involved to integrate the government and to the administration. enhance them and administer justice and ensure that everyone abides by the law. make sure all are equal before the law. improve the socialist system of law and are in accordance with the law. we should carry out and ensure

that they are guided by book thinking and actions. organizations or individuals -- no constitutions or individuals have the right to overstep the law. [applause] fifth, reform of the administration systems. we should separate government from the administration and the enterprises and the public institutions and social organizations. [indiscernible] we should have a reform of the

system concerning matters such as to govern and continue to streamline and delegate more power to lower levels. we should establish departments and provisions and control the size of government bodies. we should improve the commitment and support and conduct major reforms and can dock checks and oversights. we need to keep all of the above under constitutional checks. we should make sure that there are executive oversight powers to check each other.

we should continue to conduct scientific and democratic policy making and improve decision making and procedures. we should make the exercise of power more open. we have legal oversight as well as an oversight to ensure that the people -- that power is exercised in a transparent manner. [applause] seventh, consolidate and develop the best possible -- [indiscernible] treat each other with sincerity and strength in unity and

cooperation with the democratic party. we should face the implement that and promote ethnic groups and improve ethnic autonomy. ensure that all ethnic groups live and develop together in harmony. [applause] we should comprehensively implement religion and fully leverage the road of religious speakers and promote economic and social developments. we should encourage and guide members of new social groups to contribute more to socialism and chinese characteristics and a receipt chinese affairs --

the socialist path of making a direct path and passed hundreds of millions in this common course. e must ensure that china's social democracy is great. [applause] developing a strong socialist culture in china, culture is the lifeblood of the nation. it is the people a sense of belonging.

to complete the building a prosperous society and achieve the great renewal of the chinese nation, you must create a new search and promote socialist culture and to bring about a great development and enrichment, increased china's cultural power and unable cultured to guide social trends and educate the people answered society and boosted development. to develop a strong socialist culture in china, we must take a socialist past in promoting cultural advance with chinese characteristics. we should adhere to the goal of serving the people in socialism. the policy of having -- the principle of maintaining close contact with the realities of life for people. we should promote socialist and at the call progress -- ethical

progress. embrace the world and the future. [applause] to develop a strong culture in china, it is critical to inspire the culture and creativity of the whole nation. we should deepen reform of the cultural sector and have productive forces and foster a democratic atmosphere in both research and artistic pursuits. cray a vast cultural arena for people on the free flow. by doing so -- create a vast cultural arena for people.

cultural life will flourish as never before. will be better protected for the ethical and moral standards as well as a scientific standards. we should continue to adapt traditions in keeping up with the times and listened to the appeals of the people. add to keep the people in these theories. we should carry out -- educate people in these theories. we should barely people under the banner of chinese characteristics -- unite people under the banner of chinese characteristics. we should promote prosperity and democracy and stability and

harmony, and freedom, justice, and the rules of law. cultivate socialist. second, improve the civic morality in an all-around way. we should intensify education in public morale and family virtues and individual charity an advocate of traditional chinese overtures. we need to have programs to improve civic morality that is a beautiful and the reject booful. we agree is social atmosphere work is honored -- where work is honored. promoting harmony and

encouraging integrity. we should conduct more public activities to promote medical progress and increase volunteer service. third, increase intellectual and cultural life. we should provide people with more nourishment for the mind. we should carry it out at a faster pace that benefits the people. we should develop a system for -- and promote outstanding chinese culture. we should promote online althyces and advocate help th scenes on the internet. they should be promoting health and his activities -- healthy

activities and competitive sports. we should promote the rapid development and the cultural industry and cultural services. we should launch more major projects and programs that improve the public cultural service system. we should promote integration of cultures and science and technology. we should make " operations larger in size and more specialized. -- the operations larger in size and more specialized. we must adhere to the goal in the advancing socialist culture, deepen our awareness of chinese culture, and strive to meet the

grand goal of developing a strong socialist culture in china. [applause] social developments are improving relations in management. social development is an important guarantee for maintaining social harmony and stability. we must intensify our efforts to strengthen and make innovation and social management. we should also boost and harmonious socialist society for our interest of an are normally majority of the people. but must give high priority to ensure the people's well-being.

we should bring as much benefits as possible to the people. we should address the problems that are of greatest concern to them. people enjoy the rights to education and employment and housing so that they can lead a better life. to strengthen social development, we must accelerate social structure reform with establishing a socialist system. we should quicken the pace in the systems. we should have a system that features a party leadership and government institutions and public participation. we sure it is left sustainable and covers urban and rural

areas -- we need to make sure it is left sustainable uncovers urban and rural areas. social organizations exercise autonomy and accordance with the law. the important task in make these regards are to work hard to the satisfaction of the people and a better job in creating employment and increase income and the social security system and improve the people's health. education -- we must give high priority to developing education.

and sure that education -- ensure that education is promoted. [indiscernible] we should provide education for all students. education reform -- we should promote education and the balance. all this is designed to help all children gain the required knowledge. employment is crucial to the people's well-being. promoting self reliance.

this challenge of giving top priority to employment and prompted employment policy. we should encourage it great employment through reform and extend job opportunities. we should strengthen vocational training and a people's ability to find a job and set up their own businesses. improve the human resources market and employment services. harmonize labor relations. to ensure that the people are shown the fruits of development, we must have a system and increase individual incomes and step with modern developments and stops with improvement in labor productivity.

increase the share of work in the primary distribution. a proper balance should be struck between efficiency and [indiscernible] exercise our fairness in secondary distribution. we should increase individual income and improve the way that income is distributed. improve the income of low income groups and prohibit illicit incomes. we should have a sustainable system to provide social security. exercise unmaking of the system more sustainable and ensuring a smooth the transfer of security

accounts between localities -- we should exercise making sure the system is more sustainable and ensuring a smooth their transfer of security accounts between localities. make sure they are safe and appreciate for the time. and then the management of low- income housing and family is the housing needs. that is a prerequisite for promoting and improving people's health. rule areas are the focus of our work to promote chinese medicine and establish a sound mechanism for our basic medical and health care endeavors at the community level. this should be a high priority in medical insurance and treatments and the mechanism of

monitoring the provisions and provide them with safe and effective physicists. to conduct management and a more scientific way. he must approve the laws and institutions concerning -- we must improve the laws and institutions. we should improve the public services and strengthen the system of social management at to the community level. we should correctly handle problems and put in place and which that government and the party works in upholding the rights and interests of the people. we should maintain an open tender for people to voice their demands and their interests of protecting the rights and

interests. we should improve the public safety system and environments. we should intensify efforts to ensure law and order to improve democracy and protect the .eople's life and property upon as people make concerted efforts and of the dynamic environment and the social harmony, we can have a harmonious society. [applause] eigth, making great efforts to promote progress. promoting a logical progress with the long-term task is a vital importance to the people's future.ing and china's

we must give the high priority to make progress. it is a beautiful country with lasting sustainability for the chinese nation. [applause] where she remained committed to the basic quality in conserving resources -- we should remain committed to the basic quality in conserving resources. we should give high priority in conserving resources and protecting the environment and the starvation and striper green, a circular, and low carbon -- and protecting the ent and strive for green, a circular, and low carbon. we need to great sound and

working environments for the people and contribute our share to the global economic security. first, improved developments of geographical space. making balance between population and resources and environment and create ecological benefits to keep the pace of development under control. we should leave more pays for nature to achieve renewal. -- space for nature to achieve renewal. [applause] we should ensure this speedy -- and the dance urbanization and are partial development and ecological security and a scientific way. we should explore marine

resources as safeguard china's and test and build turn into a maritime power --hina into a maritime power. drastically reduce land and water consumption for gdp. support the development of energy efficient and low carbon industries and new energy sources and renewable energy resources. protect farm lands. we should develop a circular economy to reduce waste and resource consumption and recycle for distribution. third, it increased production of the ecosystem and the environment. mr. the ecosystem and

accelerate -- my debating ral gating natual disasters am placing emphasis on of our mental hazards to people. -- environmental hazards to people. on the basis of equity and the differentiated capabilities of all countries. fourth, promote ecological progress and reward and punishment mechanism should be adopted in keeping with the need to promote ecological progress.

we should establish a system for developing and protecting it than a geographical space. we should increase publicity of and the education of projects. protect our ecosystem more actively and i shrank in a new era of progress. -- ushering in a new era of progress. [applause] the armed forces. to modernize the army forces, enhancing our capacities in a historical period and the party's thinking on strengthening our national defense. we should act on the new

requirement of the development and secure and ensure that the armed forces carry out the restore commissions for this new century. a new century of active defense and identify -- accomplish a wide range of military tasks. we should fully [indiscernible] we must adhere to the principle of the party's leadership to the armed forces and adhered to the values. we should pursue i.t. application and achieve

modernization and step up efforts. we should strengthen the development of new technologies and equipment. we should increase efforts to run the armed forces with strict and in accordance with the law. we should advocate our national defense in a prudent way with the chinese characteristics and increase our capacity for innovation and in research and industries. continue to follow a chinese style path in the military and civilian sectors. see that our police force increases unity between the

military and the government and the civilians. our endeavor [indiscernible] [applause] tenth, enriching the practice of one country and its unification. it is the return to the motherland along which they and the mainland and draw on each other's strength and pursue a common development in the success of the key principles as one global recognition. the underlying goal of the principles and policies adopted by the central government concerning hong kong is to

uphold and china's sovereignty and develop interest and maintain relationships between the two regions. firmly supports the chief executives and governments of the two administrative regions in governing the two regions in accordance with the law, the government will permit support them in all walks of life and focus on economic the parliament and taking an effective steps to improve the people's well-being, as well as inclusiveness and mitchell support and harmony. the central government will increase economic trades between the mainland and foreign exchanges between them in all fields. we are convinced that our compatriots from hong kong not only have the wisdom and the

resourcefulness to successfully govern and developed the two regions, they can certainly also grow in national affairs and share with other people of all ethnic groups in china the dignity of being chinese. [applause] peaceful reunification is in the best interests of the chinese nation, including our compatriots and taiwan -- in taiwan. we must ensure peaceful growth reaching the two sides of the taiwan strait. when must continue to adhere to the one at a chinese principle for cooperation. i encourage the compatriots on

both sides to it and pursue a common endeavor and oppose any separatist attempt for taiwan independence. the chinese people will not allow anyone to separate taiwan from the motherland. [applause] working hand in hand, we the sons and daughters of the chinese nation will achieve the great cause of the unification of china. [applause] eleventh, continuing to promote the novel does of peace and

development of mankind -- novelness of peach and development of mankind. history teaches us about human society and arbitrary force -- pursue peace and cooperation and avoid a confrontation in order to build a road of common prosperity. this is what the people of all countries along for. -- long for. [applause] promote equality and mutual trust and inclusiveness and mutual learning a neutral cooperation in international relations. have joint efforts in justice.

china will continue to hold up the banner of cooperation and mutual benefits and strive to uphold and promote, the elements. [indiscernible] china will follow a winning strategy of opening up to promote sustainable and balanced growth of this global economy through increased cooperation. china is committed to growing and cooperating with other countries and have been a peaceful coexistence were we can grow our relations with the developed countries and properly addressing differences with them.

we will continue to promote friendship with our neighbors and relations and ensure that china's developments will bring more benefits to our neighbors and increased cooperation with other countries and support efforts to increase the representation in national affairs. china will remain a reliable friend of other developing countries. we will actively participate in multilateral affairs. we will conduct exchanges with political parties and organizations of other countries

and encourage people's congresses and local governments and organizations to increase exchanges for enhancing china'srelation with other coun. [applause] >> making party building more scientific and all respects. leading the people in a moderately prosperous society and achieving a great renewal of the chinese nation is an important mission of our whole party. the party must bear in mind that only by delivering benefits

to the people can the party remained in vincible. be on guard against adversity in times of peace. the party can remain in the forefront of the times. all party members must focus on strengthening the party's governing capacity, advanced nature, and here's a. we should continue to free up our minds and carry -- and purity. reaching continue to free up our minds and carry out reforms and innovations. the party should run itself with strict discipline. we should make all around efforts to improve the party and improve its conduct. we should applaud party integrity and improve party rules and regulations. we should enhance our capacity for self-security, self- improvement and self-innovation.

by taking these steps, we can ensure that the party is always the firm leadership toward the guiding cause of socialism with chinese characteristics. we must accomplish the following important tasks. we must be firm in our ideal and conviction to remain true to the faith of communists. put people first, exercise governance for the people had always maintained close ties with them. vigorously promote intraparty democracy and enhance the party's creative vitality. deepen reform of the systems for the management officials and personnel and build a contingent of competency for governance. and here to the principle of the party exercising leadership over personnel management and attract outstanding individuals

from all over to the cause of the party and country. promote community, love of party building, in an innovative way and consult the organizational foundation for the exercise of governance by party. combat corruption and carry out political character with integrity. we should give high priority to developing the party spirit, which is essential for party building and educating party members and officials in our shared ideals of socialism with chinese characteristics, and encourage them to unremittingly pursue this ideal. we should intensify the education in the party spirit, which is at the core of party building, caring for fine traditions and conducting a firm

and correct world view and firm and correct attitude toward power and career. we should raise the moral standards of party members, which are the foundation of party building. encourage party members and officials to become role models in their socialist views on honor and disgrace. serving the people is the fundamental purpose of the party. putting people first and exercising governance of the people is the ultimate yardstick for judging all of the party's performance in this regard. at all times, we must put the people's interests above everything else. p of one mind with the people. share a common destiny with them. rely on them to compel history forward.

advanceain the party's nature and purity, we should carry out intensive activities throughout the party to [indiscernible] with a focus on the need to serve the people and to be down to earth, honest and upright in conduct. we should solve pressing problems of keen concern to the people. we should support people's organizations such as trade units the chinese communists need and fully claim the role of bridging the link between the government and the people. intraparty democracy is the life of the party. we should hear to democratic centralism, -- to adhere to democratic centralism and

promote the people's democracy through intraparty democracy. we should uphold the principles that better protect democratic rights and insure the party members have the right to participate in and oversee party affairs as well as the right to vote. we should include a system of party congresses, raise the proportion of delegates from among workers and farmers, and introduce a system of delegates too mitt proposals. -- to submit proposals. we should improve procedural rules and decision making procedures of standing committees. we should uphold and build socialism with chinese characteristics. to do so, it is imperative to have political conviction,

competence and fine conduct. we should adhere to the principles of the party supervising and appoint officials on their merits with regards to their origin, select officials on the basis of both their moral integrity and their professional confidence with prairie given to performance and promote officials for outstanding performance and enjoy popular support. officials with outstanding performance in all fields will come to the fore in large numbers and we should have their potential to the fall and put their talents to best use. we should make the management of officials more democratic and improve the system for assessing officials. -- strengthen and improve training of officials and make greater efforts to train young

officials. encourage officials to work in hard-hit areas. the advance the cause of the party and people. we should respect work and talent and pursue a strategy of training confident personnel as a priority. -- turn china from a country with large human resources into one with a large pool of competent professionals who can of perform internationally. party organization plays a key role in rallying the people in implementing the parties theories, lines, policies and principles when carrying out its tasks. we should implement a system of

responsibility for party building, carry out community party building in all areas, expand the coverage of the organization and fully leverage the role of community level party organization, serving the people, with public support and promote harmony. we should strengthen them remove -- strengthen and improve education of party members and encourage them to be role models. we should give high priority to recruiting new members from among young workers, farmers and intellectual so as to improve the composition of party membership, combating corruption and promoting political austerity, which is a great political issue of great concern to the people. it is a clear-cut and long term political commitment of the party. if we handle this issue be if we do not handle this issue well,

it could -- if we do not handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the party. we must make the effort to combat corruption. we should keep to the chinese style pass of combating corruption and promoting integrity. we should come back corruption in an integrated way, addressing both the systemic and root causes. we must establish a system of combating corruption with both punishment and prevention. we should see to it that the government is clean and political integrity is upheld. we should strengthen our education on combating corruption and promoting clean government and improving the culture of clean government.

these are key areas of reform. we should improve a system of anti-corruption laws and fight corruption more effectively in a more scientific way. we should rigorously implement a system of accountability for improving party conduct an upholding integrity and conduct thorough investigations into major corruption and work hard to resolve the problem. whoever they are and what ever positions they have, they must be brought to justice. such wise leadership of the party is a guarantee for china's development. guarantees instability -- in stability, officials must abide

by the party constitution as well as its underlying principles. guiding principles for its political activity. no one is allowed to place themselves above the party organization. all party members must resolutely uphold the authority of the central committee, maintain a high degree of unity theoretically, politically and in action. enforce party discipline, political discipline in particular. so that the whole party will advance in unison as a great force. [indiscernible]

shouldering heavier responsibilities and tasks are our new journey forward. we must make more determined efforts towards advancing modernization. unifying the country, upholding world peace and promoting common development. to live up to the people's trust and expectation of us under new historical conditions, the whole party must be aware of the potential dangers and guard against arrogance and remained clear headed. we must be innovative in our thinking and correct mistakes. always maintain energy. we must uphold fundamental tenants of the party, rely on

people and put the party above everything else. we must hasten our sense of mission, of the realistic and preserve the political integrity of communism. the cause of socialism with chinese characteristics has great promise for the future. the whole party should care about young people, learn about what they have in mind, encourage their growth and support them in their careers as entrepreneurs. young people should respond to the party's call, foster a correct a look on life and sense of values, and always cherish this country as a great people and a great nation.

let their youthful vigor shine with radiance as they advance the cause of socialism with chinese characteristics. [applause] the success of the cause of socialism with chinese characteristics cannot be achieved without a concerted effort of all members of the chinese nation. a common cause depends on unity. all party members should improve their party spirits to ensure unity. pursue a common cause. strengthen the unity of people of all ethnic groups in china as well as all people of the chinese nation and promote the great unity of the chinese people to people of other

countries. let us hold high the great banner of socialism with chinese characteristics to be seen globally and continue towards new victories of socialism with chinese characteristics. we will make an effort for an even brighter future for the chinese people. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> tonight, remarks from president obama and speaker of the house john boehner on the

u.s. economy and federal deficit. the president said he has invited congressional leaders to the white house next week to discuss the deficit and he warned about the potential effects of the fiscal cliff. that is the series of tax increases and budget cuts that take effect in january if congress does not act. speaker boehner says a report proves that ending bush era tax cuts would hurt the economy. see them both speak tonight beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> c-span invites middle and high school students to send a message to the president through a short video. let president obama know what is the most important issue he should consider in 2013. for a chance to win a grand prize of $5,000, c-span's video cam petition is opens -- video competition is open to students in grades six through 12.

for more details, go to c- span.org. >> according to exit polling, president obama received 71% from latinas. we will hear more about that from washington journal. host: according to exit polling from tuesday, latino turnout was at an all-time high. president obama received 71% of support from the latino community. to discuss the role of the latino vote in elections 2012, we are joined by max sevilla of the national association of latino elected and appointed officials. first, talk about the factors that drove the latino vote buying in this election. -- drove the latino vote in this election. how much of this uptick on tuesday was simple demographic changes? how much was issue motivation and turnout efforts? guest: thank you for having me today.

absolutely, latino community made the election -- the difference in this election. they decided the reelection of president obama and the majority of the senate and a number of house seats. we saw the importance of the latino vote on the state level. the latino vote was historic. over 10% of the electric boat was -- electoral vote was from the latino community. that is historic, double digits. more than 13 million latinos voted. we know the numbers were decisive. how the latino vote breaks in terms of party association, that is really what is striking. the latino community is the most independent of all voting blocs. they were 71% to 75% in favor of obama. host: is the chart -- hear is the chart. -- here is the chart. it was well lowest showing since president bauble -- since presidential candidate bob dole. was this president obama

winning the latino vote? or was it mitt romney losing the latino vote? guest: i think it was both. you have certain issues that president obama still has to answer for. there was a failure to get -- to get immigration reform down during his first term. now he has promised to accomplish it the first year of his second term. he did not accomplish it. that was a big disappointment. the other thing is the fact that the number of deportations, immigrant deportations, was a record high during his first term. he deported almost twice as many immigrants as the first bush administration did. about 600,000 per year. we see the economic downturn has hit the latino community disproportionately. currently, the unemployment

rate for the general community is approximately 7.8%. yet it is close to 10% for latinos. there is a lot the president has to do in his second term. governor romney took certain positions, particularly in the primary, that really went against the latino community, things like self-deportation. there were a lot of things that he and the republican party have to amend, have to change in order to get a larger share of the latino vote. host: if you want to join in to this conversation with max sevilla, call us. 202-585-3880 -- democrats. 202-585-3881 -- republicans. 202-585-3882 -- independence. tell us about your organization.

guest: we have a membership of latino-elected officials from all across the country, at all levels of government. we also are on the ground, in the neighborhoods, doing voter registration. we do voter protection during the election. we do assistance with regards to naturalization. at the same time, we also do advocacy. i am the chief lobbyist for the organization in washington, d.c., on four issues in particular -- voting rights, immigration reform, naturalization, and the census. having good data on the latino community, challenges and potential, it is very important for the future. host: you talked about what mitt romney did in this campaign that affected the latino vote. this comes from "usa today." the director of research at the center for immigration studies rights that immigration views

did not cost from the during this campaign. he writes -- your response? guest: their candidates that can win despite the latino vote -- and there are candidates that can win despite the latino vote. immigration was not a priority for the latino community. when they were polled before the election, they recognized -- they said unemployment, the economy was the number-one issue, as was for all americans. with regards to immigration, it goes to the heart of the community. it is that community feeling, which i think is so special with latinos.

the tone that the romney campaign and the party used during this election, i did that is what pulled many latino voters from supporting republican candidates on the republican -- and the republican candidate for president. things like self-deportation were promoted. romney said that arizona and alabama were a model for state action on immigration. not really went to the heart of the latino community, which agrees -- about 65% of latinos know someone that is in the united states in a manner that is on documented. -- is undocumented. the discussion is also important to the porter rican -- puerto rican and dominican- american community. host: i wanted it to some

comments that senator harry reid said on the possibility of congress passing immigration reform. [video clip] >> we have tried, i have tried, i have spent more time on immigration teed of congress ago than any other administration. it is interesting what has happened. kennedy and mccain led that. mccain has not been with us on immigration reform. the only thing we need to get immigration reform done is a few republican votes. i get 90% of the democrats. couldn't we get a few of the republicans? it is high on my list. we are going to have some votes on it. if the republicans continue, it is that there peril -- it is at their peril. not for political reasons, but because it is the wrong thing to do.

the system is broken and needs to be fixed. host: do you agree with senator reed's -- reid's comments? guest: for any politician, it is at their peril not to work on immigration reform. it is important to the country. the business community wants immigration reform. over 60% of americans polled at the exit polls say they want immigration reform. the current system we have is broken. it is costing -- causing situations that are unamerican, that did not go with the values and principles we espouse as a nation. host: let's take some calls for max sevilla of naleao. good morning. caller: first of all, i want to say that hispanic-- i am an african-american in my mid-50's.

i have probably been through more racism, bigotry and discrimination in the first 25 years of my life than any white person or hispanic probably has ever had to go through. first of all, i want to say that they do deserve to get the very best that this country has to offer. they deserved it. when you get republicans going around saying that all the what is christophe, that is a -- all they want is free stuff, that is a lie. they can grow in a positive way. they are going to help this country. when i am listening to a lie, the only thing the republicans have to talk about is that they should have worked harder on getting the latino vote. of course african-americans voted 92% against them. you know what that came from?

that came from experiences of centuries of being treated the way that we have been treated. let's not forget now, if it weren't for white americans who believed in equality for all people and african americans who fought the good fight, with the help of them, we would not be seeing hispanics and other minorities coming over here at the rate that they are. but, let me just say again, african-americans do not want anybody to have to go through what they have gone through. host: max sevilla, what do republicans need to do to reach out to the latino community? guest: i think that -- thank you for your comments. i believe that it is really a matter of policy. they need to a spouse, they need to support -- to espouse, they need to support communities that are important to minority people.

these issues having to do with the economy, unemployment, education reform, health care, immigration. the tone that is used, particularly by elected officials, needs to be responsible. these are human issues, these are human -- civil-rights issues. these are important not just to the latino community, minority -- minority communities, but to the future of this nation. if we want a stronger america, we need to deal with some of the hardest issues impacting all communities. host: let me get your response to this week from alabama. "once obama -- tweet from alabama. "wants obama passes, for now -- from burton's of immigration reform, latinos will be a reliable voting block for democrats for generations to come.: guest: it would be a great thing to see a commitment from

president obama to get it done. he is not the sole player in getting comprehensive immigration reform done. the senate needs to participate. then the house, which is currently controlled by the republicans, also needs to be a part of it and get it done. also in, what we need are responsible players -- ultimately, what we need are responsible players with regards to immigration reform. host: going back to the earlier caller and the experience of african-americans, hall writes, "is there any interest in the latino community in building coalitions with other ethnic minorities, blacks, and asians? -- asians?" guest: absolutely. a couple of weeks before the election, we put out a report where we projected that approximately 219,000 latinos will be deterred from voting or have their vote made more difficult.

that was for just 2012. the issue remains in play. still very important to the latino community. the latinos came out in droves to vote and decide the election. there were too-strick voter -- too-strict voter-id regulations that came into play. hundreds of thousands of latinos could be impacted by voter protection, voter- restricting laws that could come into play between now and the next election. host: let's go to mobile, alabama, on our republican line. caller: good morning. i hear all these things, these

lofty ideas for jobs -- american values, without ever telling them what american values are. anybody coming into this country should -- to find out what american values are -- first, learn the language, then learn how to read it, then get educated, then voted. -- vote. host: what are a few of those american values that you think folks need to know? caller: i think they need to know that we are a democratic republic, not just the democratic. democratics usually lead to dictators. there has not been a dictator in the last 100 years that did not come in with a democrat vote. i think we need to learn the issues that are going on and listen to things more than just the floury -- flowery things

people say, and look at what they really want to do. host: your response? guest: if i may take for a minute -- talk for a minute about what i believe american values are, and the reason the latino community espouses them. i believe that freedom, liberty, patriotism. latinos are over represented in the american u.s. forces, the military forces. freedom of speech, freedom of religion. i think the caller was talking about democracy, democratic forms of government. over 13 million latinos, about 10% of the electorate, in 2012 -- 10% of the electorate in 2012 was latino. that is unique. it is the latino community that

illustrates how great of a nation we are. it is a new work community -- a newer community. host: let's go to jordan from port st. lucie, florida. caller: why do your groups always have to represent special interests? what can we not unite as a country? why do we always have to define ourselves -- divide ourselves? martin luther king said it best, we should judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin or where the came from -- i added the last part. it is real simple. it is about whether you want to come to the country legally and played by the rules, or whether you want to come to the country illegally and come in the back door. why is it races that we are accepting people from latin america -- why is it racist that we are accepting people from latin america? all the people from asia,

europe, who are waiting in line, waiting in line for years, paying thousands of dollars to lawyers to get here -- to me, that is the racism right there. why are we just excepting latinos? what do you call yourself latinos? you are americans. if you get here legally, you are americans. host: respond. guest: we are an organization that has a membership of latino elected officials. that is part of the mission. we believe that, by greater participation of latinos and hispanics in the civic and political process of united states, we are a better nation. i believe there is nothing wrong with that. i actually think that, like i said, we're better for it. in terms of immigration reform, we are talking about a broken system that needs to be reformed.

the de facto situation, where there are 12 million to 13 million undocumented immigrants in the united states, something needs to be done about it. we agree there needs to be a process, where the immigrant pays a fine, goes to the back of the line, a real process. because of it, we will be a greater, more diverse nation. host: let's go to jackson, mississippi, on the democratic line. caller: good morning. i'm very glad i got through. i'm very interested in what you are talking about. i am just elated that this gentleman is on and speaking of the hispanic people. i think they are doing a great job. they come here to work. their values are no different than american values. they want family. they want to take care of their kids. they want their kids educated.

they want their children to be able to work in this society just like everybody in america. everybody in america huckster remember there -- america house to remember their ancestors came here for the same reasons -- everybody in america has to remember that their ancestors came here for the same reasons. the gentleman that was on before that was talking about we need to learn our values -- we have not learned our own values yet. host: max sevilla? guest: i take great pride in the fact we are upright -- a nation of immigrants. we are a melting pot. through our diversity, we have a new and interesting for festive -- an interesting perspectives -- we have -- we have new and interesting perspectives. we're talking about family closeness. many immigrants have made the

move because of the welfare of their families, and better education, work opportunities. people are hard working, they are loving. that only adds to the american community. host: this issue was brought up in this column today. there is a perception among republicans that they can win back the latino community because latinos are more socially conservative, and therefore a more natural fit for the republican party. is that an accurate fit? guest: it is a complex community. there may be some commonality is based on religion and some other perspectives. it is really all about, my perspective, policies, interest, positions taken.

when we started the program, we talked about how the support of the latino community gave to president obama was really a unprecedented. we would have to go back to 1996 to see that kind of strong support for one party. if we think back to 1996, what was going on was prop 187 in california, which so alienated latinos and drove them to the democratic party. president clinton was against prop 187. when latinos organized and participated in the process, they supported the democratic candidate. i think that there is -- unless the republican party comprehensively looks at what the latino community -- disavows such positions as the arizona immigration law or alabama, laws supporting things -- issues such as self- deportation -- self-deportation is a great example of the volumes and

principles -- of the american values and principles we were talking about. the idea that we would make the life of an individual and family so miserable that the person would, on his or her own, decide to remove themselves from the country where they are at, where they have found refuge. that is not american values. that is heartless and cruel. that is the sort of position that the republican party needs to move away from in order to get more latino voters to support them. host: we go now to john from locust grove, georgia, on our republican line. caller: i want to ask a question. a doctor at north carolina university said latinos would be the perfect loading base for democrats because they are working -- perfect voting base

for democrats because they are working poor. then you have the black panthers putting out $1 million contracts -- a murder contract, and nothing is done about it. then you have a latino house of representatives running out like little girls -- host: we will go now to troy from michigan on the independent line. you are on with max sevilla. caller: this is troy. just thinking about the latinos -- the mexican americans coming into the united states. i worked with the mexican- americans. the cubans. when theey -- they first come

into america. we were trying to recruit guys to organize them into the union. i'm glad to see the support they have gave obama. the lifestyle of breaking away from the black community -- that is the scary part about the mexican-americans. what are they going to do once they get full citizenship in this country? guest: if i may respond to the last two questions. the latino community is really the ultimate independent community. surveys show that approximately

45% support the democratic party. about 25% support the republican party. the remaining 25% to 30% is truly independent. if we go back through the past couple of decades, we see that bill clinton -- president clinton got great support from the latino community in 1996. if we look at 2000 and 2004, president bush got about 40%. he got about 44% in his reelection. then we get to president obama, who got about 69% initially of the latino vote, now about 71% to 75%. you see how support from latino voters, the latino community can go anywhere from 44% for republican to 25% for republican -- from 44% for a republican to 25% for a re -- republican. i think the republican party in

this election and governor romney, in running for president, failed to communicate to the latino community that the positions that he and his party espouse or to the best interest of the community and the nation. that is where the opportunity lies. host:. the chart showing the latino vote from 1980 -- host: here is the chart showing the latino vote from 1980 to the 2012 election. what was he doing right with the latino community in that election? guest: when he first came off a stormy he talked about the relationship with mexico being the no. 1 -- came to office, he talked about the relationship with mexico being the number

one priority for the united states. he got distracted by 9/11. there were other issues. he talked about the relationship with england being a priority to the united states. he fully supported -- he spent political capital on immigration reform and other issues related to the welfare of the latino community. there was great support for republican politicians that a spouse issues that benefited the latino community. -- that espoused issues that benefited the latino community. host: mr. obama beat mr. romney by 58% to 40% in florida, 87% to 10% in colorado, at 80% to

17% in nevada, and 60% to 31% in virginia. we will go to one of the swing state in this election now. -- a swing states in this election now. caller: i love the statement that he made about self deportation. absolutely right. that is basically what the gop party is doing, not just to latinos, but everyone else. it is basically 47%. one of the things i would like to mention -- i wrote this over 20 years ago -- we had 36 men in mexico who controlled 54% of mexico's gross national product. how much can they need to buy? i am sick and tired of the 36

men in mexico -- the number of men in the united states, canada, central america, south america, europe and asia, etc., whose lust for more greed and power is destroying the entire planet for man and beast. that bothers me. i feel that they spend their lives living off a bus. as long as we obey their roles, everything is ok. -- off of us. as long as we obey their rules, everything is ok. guest: i think that oftentimes, the process that is taken in -- to having a greater appreciation for how democratic our process is, however when has 1 vote, one voice -- how

everyone has one vote, one voice. it strengthens our democratic process. somehow i would like add to what i said already regarding self-deportation, the issue of arizona as a model to the nation, the arizona immigration law, it pains me, it hurt me to tears when i heard very recently in the experience of undocumented immigrants in the state of arizona. what they are going through is just heartbreaking. it does not represent the principles that i live by. there are parents with children -- parents do not go to pta

meetings because they are concerned that, on the way to visit with their children's teachers, they may be caught because of a traffic violation and get deported. there are families that do not go grocery shopping until very late at night for that same fear. undocumented immigrants in places like arizona and elsewhere -- they learn code words and phone numbers where they can call and, just by mentioning this word, notify supporters and friends that they have been caught by immigration and they may be in the process of deportation. there is an entire system in place in the shadows to support the undocumented immigrants' families and to get them lawyers. we can be much more transparent, accountable, we can have part in dealing with our

immigration situation. i think that -- we can have heart in dealing with our immigration situation. i think that is what is encouraging what you heard from the senate and house, that immigration reform will be a priority in this second term. i think it is about time that we reform the system that is broken. host: a comment and question for you from the twitter users out there. if the 1980's immigration reform did not work to stop in the -- illegal immigration, why would it work now? guest: loss have been ineffective. they have not strengthened this nation. they have not made it better. this system is broken. it gets us nowhere to ignore

the fact that there are 12 million to 13 million undocumented immigrants in the united states. the case of students -- it is a fantastic example. there are some people who only know what is like to live in the united states. they were brought here when they were babies. they do not speak spanish. our broken immigration system will help them and their families -- will have them and their families deported. unless we change the system, we are doing an injustice to these families, to the students, and to the american people. host: we will go to ed from philadelphia, pennsylvania, on the republican line. good morning. caller: he said this brings him to tears about the people and the way they are treated in the arizona. it brings me to tears to see

the way people come across the border, have no respect for the rule of law. why aren't they having a mexican spring, like they did the arab spring? get rid of the corruption. make a better lifestyle. why come here and be a burden here and make us suffer and make us take care of you and bring our school systems down? why don't you just do something in your own country for god's -- country, for god's sake? i would, if i lived there. i would not tolerate it. why would you? guest: the latino community in the united states is a hard- working community that makes this nation better. i am proud of it and i think it strengthens the nation that we are. host: we go to lisa from hartford, conn. now on the

independent line. good morning. caller: i am calling to say that latino is not a race. there are black latinos, white hispanics. are you going to talk about the racism going on in mexico against black mexicans and in south and central america because there are afro-latinos? you're not talking about that. latino is not erased. you are trying to fool people. it is not a race. guest: it is an identity. we are better involved in working with the census bureau and how the community self defines in order to better understand the numbers, the needs, the challenges and opportunities. indeed, it is not homogenous opportune -- homogenous community. there is great diversity in terms of race and national origin, but there are

commonalities within this community that bring us together. host: j d riding on the twitter feed question we asked you before, the 1980's versus now, we were hoping you could talk a little more about the efforts in the 1980's versus how would change this time around. guest: this time around we are looking at a border that changed, a border that is much more protected. we hope to be in the process of redefining comprehensive immigration reform. we have learned lessons from previous experiences. i think that what we learned this time around will be very different from what we saw in the 1980's were there were many things that worked, many successes, and yet there may have been some failures. host: we will go to bryan from pennsylvania on the democratic line. caller: i just want to bring a different side to this.

i work for a major motorcycle manufacturing company for 27 years. we were a union shop. we had latino americans, african americans, every american culture. i worked very well with latinos. there were very hard working. i mean, they are american people. i do not know why people want to make out like they are not. they care about their families. they care about god. you know, i just don't understand it. but anyway, i used to be a republican until this year. 20 years, and i just realize the republican party is not really looking at the whole country, all the americans. they seem to be splitting them into groups and i don't agree with it. anyway, that is all i have to say. guest: i think that oftentimes when we talk about immigration

reform, we forget about the human aspect. we forget that it impacts individuals and families. very directly. i think that is important to keep in mind. what the caller was saying about being disappointed with the republican party, i think the polls have shown -- recent polls of shown that about 62% of the american people want to see immigration system reform. it is not the number one priority, but certainly an important priority of latinos, and also a priority of the american public generally. host: some statistics on how latinas did in house and senate races this year. two republicans and latinos and one democrat won seats -- to let you know republicans and one

democrat won seats in the senate. their 23 house democrats and five republicans elected this cycle. back to the phones. we will go to caught dead in liverpool, n.y., on the republican -- claudette in liverpool, n.y., on the republican line. caller: i would like to know what nationality you say hispanics are. we of black, we of white, what is hispanic? guest: i tried to answer the question about how latinos self identified. it is a concept still being worked out. there is great diversity in terms of race, in terms of national origin, yet there is huge commonality, not to

spanish, but spanish language, but craig commonalities that unite the community. -- great commonalities that unite the community. caller: good morning. i have more of a statement than anything. this country was founded on immigrants coming to seek government from tyrants and kings all across the world. to deny one person by saying this or that, i think the republican party at times would it meant -- would admit that it seems more like the conservative 1950's racists at times. we are a melting pot, and many nationalities coming together under one constitution. sometimes our leaders forget to knowledge that. immigration reform, yes, there need to be guidelines, but i think we're being too strict in some areas and not strict enough in other areas. host: the latino vote was of an

all-time high this year, 10%. what is the registration drive for latino groups. what does that mean for the mobilization of the latino vote in the future, whether it be the elections in 2014 or the next presidential election? guest: i believe the latino community was decisive in this election and will be decisive in future elections too. there is actually approximately 20 four million latinos that are eligible to vote, of which about 14.5 million actually registered for this election and approximately 13 million latinos actually voted. the opportunity is much greater, even right now, the opportunity is much greater for latino engagement